Arafura swamp water resources study
Williams, D.; Chudleigh, I.; Jolly, P.
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report ; 45/2003
2003
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:2003
English
Dept. of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment
Darwin
Report ; 45/2003
application/pdf.
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/229247
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/673198
8 Geology The Arafura Swamp formed around 5-6000 years ago after sea levels became stable after they had risen for about 12 thousand years. Since then sea levels have fallen slightly to their present level (refer to Figure 5). Around 5,000 years ago the Arafura Swamp was a marine swamp. When sea levels fell and stabilised the freshwater swamp was formed. The swamp formed in a large shallow basin on the Raiwalla Shale. Up to 20 metres of marine clays has been deposited on the shale. Up to 2 metres of freshwater alluvial material has been deposited on the clay (refer to Figure 6). Northern Australia Sea Level Curve -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 -18 -16 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 thousand years before present R el at iv e Se a Le ve l ( m et re s) Figure 5: Northern Australia Sea Levels Relative to Todays Level (ie 0 metres Relative Sea Level) Figure 6: Cross Section of Arafura Swamp (for location refer to Figure 8)