Timing and magnitude of Miocene eustasy derived from the mixed siliciclastic-carbonate stratigraphic record of the northeastern Australian margin

Eustasy is a key parameter to understand sedimentary sequences on continental margins and to reconstruct continental ice volume in the Cenozoic, but timing and magnitude of global sea level changes remain controversial, especially for the Miocene Epoch. We analyzed sediment cores recovered from the Marion Plateau, offshore northeastern Australia, during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 194 to define the mechanisms and timing of sequence formation on mixed carbonate-siliciclastic margins, and to estimate the amplitude of Miocene eustatic adjustments. We identified sequence boundaries on seismic reflection lines, significantly revised the existing biostratigraphic age models, and investigated the sedimentary response to sea-level changes across the Marion Plateau. We subdivided the Miocene sediments into three sequence sets comprising a set of prograding clinoforms, a muddy prograding …