Newswise – Curtin researchers and international collaborators using advanced satellite imagery have discovered an ancient reef-like landform ‘hidden’ in plain sight on the Nullarbor Plain, which has been preserved for millions of years ‘years since it was first formed when the plain was under water.
Research author Dr Milo Barham, from the Timescale Mineral Systems Group at the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the find challenged understanding even more than the Nullarbor Plain, which emerged from the ocean about 14 million years ago, was essentially flat and featureless.
“Unlike many parts of the world, large areas of the Nullarbor Plain have remained largely unchanged by the processes of weathering and erosion for millions of years, making it a unique geological canvas that records history old in remarkable ways,” said Dr Barham.
“Through high-resolution satellite imagery and field work we have identified the clear remains of an original seafloor structure preserved for millions of years, which is the first of its kind discovered in the Nullarbor Plain.
“The ring-shaped ‘hill’ cannot be explained by extraterrestrial impacts or any known deformation process, but it preserves the original textures and microbial features typically found on the modern Great Barrier Reef.”
Dr Barham said the discovery was due to increased access to new high-resolution satellite images, which revealed subtle features that represent surprising stories of environmental evolution on the Nullarbor Plain.
“Evidence of long-vanished river channels, as well as sand dune systems imprinted directly into limestone, preserve an archive of ancient landscapes and even a record of prevailing winds. And it’s not just landscapes. The isolated cave shafts that dot the Nullarbor Plain preserve mummified remains of Tasmanian tigers and complete skeletons of long-gone wonders such as Thylacoleo, the marsupial lion,” Dr Barham said.
“On the surface, due to relatively stable conditions, the Nullarbor Plain has preserved large quantities of meteorites, allowing us to look back in time to the origins of our solar system.
“These features, together with the million-year-old landscape feature we have now identified, make the Nullarbor Plain a land that time forgot and allow for a fascinating deeper understanding of Earth’s history.”
Dr Barham is affiliated with The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtin’s flagship Earth Sciences research institute.
Entitled ‘Enigmatic annular landform on a Miocene planar karst surface, Nullarbor Plain, Australia’ and to be published in Earth Surface Processes And Landforms, the research was led by Dr. Matej Lipar of the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of the Research Center of ‘Slovenian Academy. of Sciences and Arts.