The Explanatory Notes System (ENS) is a digital repository of detailed unit descriptions that integrates stratigraphic relationships with links to all tectonic units and events recognized in Western Australia. It replaces the previously published Explanatory Notes manuscripts that accompanied individual 1:100 000 and 1:250 000 series geological maps. The system allows incremental updates for new data and refined interpretations, providing a seamless, up-to-date summary of the geology of Western Australia.
Access Explanatory Notes System (ENS) (GeoVIEW.WA)
Explanatory Notes are written for Lithostratigraphic units, Tectonic units and Events, and are delivered via GeoVIEW.WA through a set of designated ENS search tools. Spatial and textual query interfaces allow customers to produce geoscience reports by selecting a unit, a generalised parameter (e.g. age, rank, etc.), or an area of interest (by map name or rectangle). If a selected unit is represented in GeoVIEW.WA, the layer(s) in which it appears are highlighted in a dedicated window. Reports are available in two formats:
- Unit — for a single unit; colour-coding indicates whether the unit is complete (green tick) or only basic information is available (red tick)
- Overview — provides a stratigraphically sorted list of the selected unit/event and all its associated child units. Overview reports are available as a table of contents or as fully expanded reports.
Related units and events are hyperlinked, and further reports are generated on the fly. Hyperlinks to GSWA publications are also provided. Explanatory Notes reports can be saved as PDF, or Microsoft Word and Excel documents.
ENS incorporates business rules that facilitate the sorting of rock units in a chronostratigraphic sequence. Spatial interrogation returns a list of rock units stratigraphically sorted (i.e. youngest at the top and oldest at the bottom) within individual tectonic units. Tectonic units themselves are ordered relative to each other in a single framework for the State — thereby providing the digital equivalent of the ‘geological’ column of a map legend.
The Explanatory Notes information provided in GeoVIEW.WA is updated regularly.
ENS contains only current mapped units. If a unit name is not returned in ENS, the unit may be Obsolete or Superseded; please refer to the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database for further information on historical usage.
Further information about ENS can be found in Explanatory Notes for the digital age and Digital Explanatory Notes in GeoVIEW.WA.
Contact
For further information contact:
explanatory.notes@dmirs.wa.gov.au
For technical assistance contact IT Service Desk.