Neritic Depositional Environments

Abstract

The southern continental margin of Australia today has been much the same throughout the late Cenozoic and so the Holocene depositional system is a continuation of one that has been in place for ~2 my. It has been dominated by strong SW winds that drive high-energy waves and swells directly onto exposed coasts. The climate, however, has become progressively drier since the mid-Pliocene such that much of southern Australia is today semi-arid. Exceptions are the Albany coast and the somewhat mountainous coasts of southern Victoria and Tasmania. This chapter is a documentation of the suite of modern marine depositional environments that are present across the continental margin.