Basin countries Australia Max. width 10 km (6.2 mi) Area 1,032 km² Width 10 km | Type salt lake Max. length 180 km (110 mi) Surface area 1,032 km (398 sq mi) Length 180 km | |
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Geos272 amadeus basin video
The Amadeus Basin is a large (ca. 170,000 km²) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying mostly within the southern Northern Territory, but extending into the state of Western Australia.
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Origins
The Amadeus Basin is named after Lake Amadeus which lies within the basin. Local deposition of up to 14 km of marine and non-marine sedimentary rocks took place from the Neoproterozoic to the late Paleozoic.
Along with other nearby sedimentary basins of similar age (Officer Basin, Georgina Basin, Ngalia Basin), the Amadeus Basin is believed to have once been part of the hypothetical Centralian Superbasin.
The basin was locally deformed during the Petermann Orogeny (late Neoproterozoic — Cambrian), and more extensively during the Paleozoic Alice Springs Orogeny, events that fragmented the former Centralian Superbasin.
The basin has been above water for the past 50 million years, as the modern coast of South Australia and Western Australia formed during this time.