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The Western Australia shear zone

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Tectonic geomorphology along the continental margin of Western Australia indicates the presence of an approximately 2000 km long zone of dextral-oblique neotectonic faults and folds referred to as the Western Australian shear zone (WASZ). The WASZ reoccupies older rift related structures that initially formed during periods of continental-scale fragmentation in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras. Reactivation in the WASZ is coincident with late Neogene reorganization of Australia’s plate boundaries and realignment of the intraplate stress field. Neotectonic deformation in the southern WASZ is dominated by transpressional inversion within the extended crustal domain between Australian oceanic crust to the west and non-extended Australian continental crust to the east. The WASZ appears to accommodate differential motion expressed as dextral transpression between oceanic and non-extended continental tectonic blocks—or micro-plates.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title The Western Australia shear zone
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/8baf79bb-bd55-44d0-9da8-416207446777
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 08/04/2019
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "The Western Australia shear zone". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/the-western-australia-shear-zone