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1.
R. A. Cayley R. J. Korsch D. H. Moore R. D. Costelloe A. Nakamura C. E. Willman 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2013,60(2):113-156
A ～400 km long deep crustal reflection seismic survey was acquired in central Victoria, Australia, in 2006. It has provided information on crustal architecture across the western Lachlan Orogen and has greatly added to the understanding of the tectonic evolution. The east-dipping Moyston Fault is confirmed as the suture between the Delamerian and western Lachlan Orogens, and is shown to extend down to the Moho. The Avoca Fault, the boundary between the Stawell and Bendigo Zones, is a west-dipping listric reverse fault that intersects the Moyston Fault at a depth of about 22 km, forming a V-shaped geometry. Both the Stawell and Bendigo Zones can be divided broadly into a lower crustal region of interlayered and imbricated metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks and an upper crustal region of tightly folded metasedimentary rocks. The Stawell Zone was probably part of a Cambrian accretionary system along the eastern Gondwanaland margin, and mafic rocks may have been partly consumed by Cambrian subduction. Much of the Early Cambrian oceanic crust beneath the Bendigo Zone was not subducted, and is preserved as a crustal-scale imbricate thrust stack. The seismic data have shown that a thin-skinned structural model appears to be valid for much of the Melbourne Zone, whereas the Stawell and Bendigo Zones have a thick-skinned structural style. Internal faults in the Stawell and Bendigo Zones are mostly west-dipping listric faults, which extend from the surface to near the base of the crust. The Heathcote Fault Zone, the boundary between the Bendigo and Melbourne Zones, extends to at least 20 km, and possibly to the Moho. A striking feature in the seismic data is the markedly different seismic character of the mid to lower crust of the Melbourne Zone. The deep seismic reflection data for the Melbourne Zone have revealed a multilayered crustal structure that supports the Selwyn Block model. 相似文献
2.
《Gondwana Research》2013,24(4):1581-1598
This review synthesizes the Proterozoic and early Paleozoic geology of Tasmania, Bass Strait and western and central Victoria. We examine the many different conflicting hypotheses that have been proposed to solve the paradoxical relationships between Tasmanian geology and that of mainland Australia, most notably the prevalence of Proterozoic basement of western and central Tasmania, while immediately across Bass Strait evidence of Proterozoic rocks is much more cryptic. We conclude that the Selwyn block model is the most satisfactory hypothesis to date, since it fits best with the obvious patterns in the magnetic and gravity data. This model proposes that the central Victorian Melbourne Zone is underlain by the northern extension of thin Tasmanian Proterozoic and Cambrian crust under Bass Strait, and that the Silurian to Middle Devonian Melbourne Zone was shortened along a décollement during the Tabberabberan Orogeny. The Ordovician rocks of eastern Tasmania correlate more closely with the Tabberabbera Zone than the Melbourne Zone in Victoria; however the Silurian and Devonian correlations are less certain. Major unresolved issues are the origins of the Proterozoic and Early Cambrian lithostratigraphic packages, tectonic models for their assembly during the Tyennan Orogeny, and how these models fit with those for mainland Australia. 相似文献
3.
R. Abdullah U. Shaanan K. Lynn G. Rosenbaum 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(2):153-173
AbstractCambrian deformation associated with the Delamerian Orogeny is most evident in the Delamerian Orogen (southwestern Tasmanides) but has also been documented in the Thomson Orogen (northern Tasmanides). The tectonic evolution of the Thomson Orogen in the context of the Delamerian Orogeny is poorly understood. In particular, tectonostratigraphic relationships between the different parts of the Thomson Orogen (Anakie Inlier, Nebine Ridge, and southern Thomson Orogen) are still unclear. New detrital zircon data from the Nebine Ridge revealed an age spectrum that is consistent with published geochronological data from the Anakie Inlier. These results, in conjunction with petrographic observations and the interpretation of geophysical data, suggest that along the eastern part of the Thomson Orogen, the?～?NNE-trending Nebine Ridge represents the southward continuation of the?～?N–S-trending Anakie Inlier. New detrital zircon geochronological data are also presented for metasedimentary rocks from both sides of the Thomson–Lachlan boundary. The results constrain the maximum age of deposition (Ordovician–Devonian), and show that both sides of the Thomson–Lachlan boundary received detritus from a similar provenance. This might suggest that the Thomson–Lachlan boundary did not play a major role as a crustal-scale boundary prior to the Devonian. We speculate that transpressional deformation along this?～?E–W boundary, during the Early Devonian, was responsible for disrupting the original belt that connected the Delamerian Orogen (Koonenberry Belt) with the eastern Thomson Orogen (Nebine Ridge and Anakie Inlier).
- Highlights
The Nebine Ridge is the southward continuation of the Anakie Inlier.
The Anakie Inlier and Nebine Ridge represent a northern segment of the Cambrian Delamerian–Thomson Belt.
～E–W-trending crustal-scale structures at the southern Thomson Orogen were active during Devonian.
4.
R. A. Henderson C. L. Fergusson I. W. Withnall 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(5):663-680
AbstractThe Charters Towers Province, of the northern Thomson Orogen, records conversion from a Neoproterozoic passive margin to a Cambrian active margin, as characteristic of the Tasmanides. The passive margin succession includes a thick metasedimentary unit derived from Mesoproterozoic rocks. The Cambrian active margin is represented by upper Cambrian–Lower Ordovician (500–460?Ma) basinal development (Seventy Mile Range Group), plutonism and metamorphism resulting from an enduring episode of arc–backarc crustal extension. Detrital zircon age spectra indicate that parts of the metamorphic basement of the Charters Towers Province (elements of the Argentine Metamorphics and Charters Towers Metamorphics) overlap in protolith age with the basal part of the Seventy Mile Range Group and thus were associated with extensional basin development. Detrital zircon age data from the extensional basin succession indicate it was derived from a far-field (Pacific-Gondwana) primary source. However, a young cluster (<510?Ma) is interpreted as reflecting a local igneous source related to active margin tectonism. Relict zircon in a tonalite phase of the Fat Hen Creek Complex suggests that active margin plutonism may have extended back to ca 530?Ma. Syntectonic plutonism in the western Charters Towers Province is dated at ca 485–480?Ma, close to timing of metamorphism (477–467?Ma) and plutonism more generally (508–455?Ma). The dominant structures in the metamorphic basement formed with gentle to subhorizontal dips and are inferred to have formed by extensional ductile deformation, while normal faulting developed at shallower depths, associated with heat advection by plutonism. Lower Silurian (Benambran) shortening, which affected metamorphic basement and extensional basin units, resulted in the dominant east–west-structural trends of the province. We consider that these trends reflect localised north–south shortening rather than rotation of the province as is consistent with the north–south paleogeographic alignment of extensional basin successions.
- KEY POINTS
Northern Tasmanide transition from passive to active margin tectonic mode had occurred by ca 510?Ma, perhaps as early as ca 530?Ma.
Cambro-Ordovician active margin tectonism of the Charters Towers Province (northern Thomson Orogen) was characterised by crustal extension.
Crustal extension resulted in the development of coeval (500–460?Ma) basin fill, granitic plutonism and metamorphism with rock assemblages as exposed across the Charters Towers Province developed at a wide range of crustal levels and expressing heterogeneous exhumation.
Protoliths of metasedimentary assemblages of the Charters Towers Province include both Proterozoic passive margin successions and those emplaced as Cambrian extensional basin fill.
5.
AbstractIn Australian stratigraphic nomenclature, the concept of granitic rock suites has been in formal use for over a decade. The basis for this suite classification of granitic rocks is inconsistent and, in eastern Australian usage, unsound on several levels. We also note that the approach used in Western Australia is different. Granitic intrusions are probably not truly amenable to any strict, comprehensive, lithostratigraphic classification. If these rocks are integrated into such a scheme, group- and supergroup-level units (i.e. formal suites and supersuites) should not be incorporated. For the present, mappable units should be recognised at the levels of formation and member. The use of granite suites and supersuites in formal stratigraphic hierarchies is not recommended. Instead, granitic bodies could be grouped into individual plutons, which may or may not form parts of larger batholiths.
- KEY POINTS
The suite-based classification of granitic bodies, as currently used in the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database, is based on unsound principles, and is not employed in a consistent manner.
Granitic intrusive rocks probably cannot be grouped using lithostratigraphic principles that are consistent with either the local or international codes.
Granitic bodies can be grouped into batholiths, plutons and members, but the names of these units should, for the moment, remain informal.
6.
R. A. Cayley D. H. Taylor A. H. M. VandenBerg D. H. Moore 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2013,60(2):225-254
Aeromagnetic and field data suggest that meta‐igneous rocks exposed on the south coast of central Victoria at Waratah Bay, Phillip Island, Barrabool Hills and inland near Licola, are continuous—beneath Bass Strait—with Proterozoic/Cambrian igneous rocks in King Island and Tasmania. This correlation is supported by a pre‐Early Ordovician unconformity above gabbro protomylonite at Waratah Bay, age equivalent to the Tasmanian Tyennan unconformity. Cambrian volcanics at Licola and unusual features of the Melbourne Zone sequence indicate that Tyennan continental crust extends north as basement to the central Victorian portion of the Lachlan Fold Belt. In contrast, adjacent parts of the Lachlan Fold Belt in Victoria contain conformable sea‐floor sequences that span the Early Cambrian to Late Ordovician, with no evidence of either Cambrian deformation or underlying continental basement. The block of Tyennan continental crust beneath central Victoria—the Selwyn Block—is fundamentally different, and has influenced temporal and spatial patterns of sedimentation, deformation, metamorphism and plutonism. Palaeogeographical reconstructions suggest that the block was a submarine plateau that lay outboard of the Australian craton, upon which a condensed Ordovician sequence was deposited. The sequence above the Selwyn Block unconformity at Waratah Bay is similar to widespread post‐Tyennan sediments in western Tasmania. During Late Ordovician and Early Silurian deformation, the Selwyn Block protected much of the overlying sedimentary sequence. Instead, shortening was focused into the Stawell and Bendigo Zones to the west. These zones were sandwiched between the Selwyn Block and the Australian craton in a ‘vice’ scenario reminiscent of some Appalachian orogenic events. The region above the Selwyn Block was downwarped adjacent to the overthrust Bendigo Zone as a foreland deep, into which a conformable clastic wedge of sediment was deposited in Late Ordovician to Devonian time, prior to final Middle Devonian deformation. The Selwyn Block includes the Cambrian calc‐alkaline Licola and Jamieson Volcanics that are correlated with the Tasmanian Mt Read Volcanics. In Victoria, these form a basement high controlling the unusual down‐cutting thrusts in the overlying Melbourne Zone and explaining the major structural vergence reversal between the Melbourne and Tabberabbera Zones. The Selwyn Block has exerted some control on the timing, chemistry and distribution of post‐orogenic granites, and on central Victorian gold mineralisation. Reactivated faults in the block influenced deposition, and continue to control the deformation of the portions of the Otway and Gippsland Basins that lie above it. 相似文献
7.
AbstractThis paper summarises current knowledge on metamorphism within the entire New England Orogen (NEO) of eastern Australia. Rocks recording metamorphic assemblages characteristic of each of the three metamorphic facies series (high, medium and low P/T) have been identified within the orogen. These include high P/T blueschists and eclogites, mid P/T orogenic metamorphism and low P/T contact aureoles and sub-regional high-temperature–low-pressure (HTLP) metamorphism (regional aureoles). Metamorphism is described as it relates to six tectonic phases of development of the NEO that together comprise two major cycles of compression–extension. Medium–high-grade contact metamorphism spans all six tectonic phases while low-grade burial and/or orogenic metamorphism has been identified for four of the six phases. In contrast, exposure of high P/T eclogites and blueschists, and generation of sub-regional low P/T metamorphism is restricted to extensional phases of the orogen. Hallmarks of the orogen are two newly identified zones of HTLP metamorphism, the older of which extends for almost the entire length of the orogen.
- KEY POINTS
The orogen is dominated by low-temperature rocks while high-temperature amphibolite to granulite facies rocks are restricted to small exposures in HTLP complexes and contact aureoles.
Blueschist metamorphism falls into two categories; that associated with subduction during the Currabubula-Connors continental arc phase occurring at depths of ～13–30?km; and the other of Cambrian–Ordovician age, exposed within a serpentinite melange and associated with blocks of eclogite. The eclogite, initially from depths of ～75–90?km, appears to have been entrained in the deep crust for an extended period of geological time.
A comprehensive review of contact metamorphism in the orogen is lacking and as studies on low-grade metamorphism are more extensive in the southern part of the orogen than the north, this highlights a second research gap.
8.
A. H. M. VandenBerg 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2013,60(5):691-701
A substantial database of 40Ar/39Ar ages, collected recently from micas in western and central Victoria, has been used in several recent papers as support for continuous, diachronous deformation across western and central Victoria lasting through much of the Early Palaeozoic. This paper reviews these ages, together with field evidence collected over the last ten years. It provides an alternative interpretation, that mica growth and overgrowth in western Victoria was not continuous but episodic, occurring at ca 455 Ma, 440 Ma and 425 Ma, with little or no mica growth recorded from between these times. These ages have been obtained from mica in regional cleavage, crenulation cleavage and in quartz veins, and from across the entire width of the Stawell and Bendigo structural zones of western Victoria. A sharp change in mica ages occurs at the Mt William Fault, east of which no mica growth older than about 380 Ma is recorded. Several ages used in support for diachronous deformation are not related to deformation: an 40Ar/39Ar age of 417 Ma from Chewton is from the aureole of a Devonian granite, and an age of 410 Ma from the Melbourne Zone is shown to contain a substantial amount of inherited mica. If it is accepted that mica growth can be used to date deformation, then the 40Ar/39Ar ages indicate episodic, not continuous, deformation in western Victoria (Stawell and Bendigo Zones). The sharp decrease in the deformation age in the Melbourne Zone, east of the Mt William Fault, agrees well with field evidence that shows continuous sedimentation in the Melbourne Zone in the period (Ordovician to mid‐Early Devonian) during which the Stawell and Bendigo zones were undergoing deformation. Some correlation also exists between the 40Ar/39Ar ages from western Victoria and well‐constrained deformational events in the eastern Lachlan Orogen. The pattern of deformation has important corollaries in any model that attempts to understand what drives the deformation. While plate convergence must be the ultimate driving force, the pattern is quite inconsistent with deformation of a crust that was being drawn progressively into subduction zones, as proposed in recently published models. Rather, the observed pattern suggests that deformation happened in several very brief events, probably on semi‐rigid plates. 相似文献
9.
G. C. Young R. L. Dunstone P. J. Ollerenshaw J. Lu B. Crook 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(2):221-242
AbstractEdenopteron, with a lower jaw some 48?cm long, and total length perhaps exceeding 3 m, is the largest Devonian lobe-fin known from semi-articulated remains. New material described from the type locality (Boyds Tower, south of Eden) includes three slightly smaller articulated skulls and jaws, and additional bones of the shoulder girdle. Another articulated skull roof, shoulder girdle and palate is described from a second locality (Hegarty Bay), about 10?km south of Boyds Tower. Both localities represent the upper part of the Worange Point Formation, of late Famennian age (uppermost Upper Devonian). The new morphological evidence supports a close relationship to the tristichopterids Mandageria and Cabonnichthys, from the slightly older (Frasnian, Upper Devonian) fossil fish assemblage at Canowindra, New South Wales. Features of the shoulder girdle (supracleithrum, anocleithrum) suggest that Edenopteron is more closely related to Mandageria than Cabonnichthys. Eight characters are used to define a tristichopterid subfamily Mandageriinae, to which Notorhizodon from the Middle Devonian of Antarctica is also referred. The Mandageriinae is endemic to East Gondwana (Australia–Antarctica). In combination with possibly the most primitive tristichopterid, Marsdenichthys from the Frasnian of Victoria, these distributions implicate East Gondwana as a likely place of origin for the entire group. This relates to the major but unresolved question of a possible Gondwana origin for all the land vertebrates (tetrapods).
An endemic Gondwanan sub-group (Mandageriinae) of the Devonian fishes closest to land animals (tetrapodomorph tristichopterids) is confirmed.
Retention of primitive features (e.g. accessory vomers) points to an earlier origin of the Mandageriinae in East Gondwana, consistent with the Victorian occurrence of another primitive tristichopterid (Marsdenichthys).
Edenopteron is confirmed from a second south coast fossil site, and new characters indicate its closest relative is Mandageria from Canowindra, NSW.
Congruent evidence of older Gondwanan occurrences in other groups (basal tetrapodomorphs, rhizodontids, canowindrids), and previously dismissed trace fossil evidence (Grampians trackways), implicate South China and East Gondwana as the likely place of origin for all land vertebrates.
10.
AbstractThe Gangdese batholith, Tibet, records the opening and closing of the Neo-Tethyan ocean and the resultant collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates. The Mesozoic magmatic rocks play a crucial role in understanding the formation and evolution of the Neo-Tethyan tectonic realm. This study focuses on Jurassic intrusive rocks in the Xietongmen area of the southern margin of the Lhasa terrane adjacent to the Yarlung–Tsangpo suture. Zircon U–Pb dating yielded Middle Jurassic dates for ca 170?Ma hornblende gabbro and ca 173?Ma granodiorite intrusions. All of the samples are medium- to high-K calc-alkaline, and the majority are metaluminous and enriched in the large ion lithophile elements and depleted in the high-field-strength elements. This indicates the magma was generated in a subduction-related tectonic setting. The intrusive rocks have high and positive εHf(t) values (hornblende gabbro: 13.3–18.7; granodiorite: 14.2–17.6) that yield Hf model ages younger than 312?Ma. These new data, combined with the results of previous research, suggest that the Jurassic igneous rocks were derived from a metasomatised region of an asthenospheric mantle wedge. Extremely depleted Sr–Nd–Pb–Hf isotope compositions are similar to the Yarlung ophiolite and igneous rocks within other intra-oceanic island arcs. Together with the existence of sandstone that is identified as the product of the oceanic island arc environment, we suggest formation in an intra-oceanic island arc.
The new zircon U–Pb dating has yielded Middle Jurassic ages for the ca 170?Ma hornblende gabbro and ca 173?Ma granodiorite phases of the Xietongmen intrusion.
Jurassic igneous rocks formed from a metasomatised asthenospheric mantle wedge by northward subduction of the Neo-Tethys oceanic crust beneath the southern margin of the Lhasa terrane.
Late Triassic–Jurassic igneous rocks, which are characterised by highly depleted isotopic compositions within the Southern Lhasa sub-terrane, record residual intra-oceanic island arcs in the eastern Tethyan belt.
11.
A. P. Fan S. N. Sun Z. Zhang S. De J. D. N. Nenzhelele 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(3):361-377
AbstractLongstanding debates on the tectonic setting and provenance of the Lower Cretaceous Lingshandao Formation have hindered basin analysis and tectonic studies of the collision of the Yangtze Craton and the North China Craton, and thus the evolution of the Sulu Orogen. Thin-section analysis, identification of rock particles, cathodoluminescence, heavy minerals and trace-element analysis have, in addition to field investigations, been applied to reconstruct the source area and transport pathways of the sediments that build the Lower Cretaceous Laiyang Group on the Lingshan Island, western Yellow Sea. These analyses indicate that the Laiyang Group consists mainly of material derived from a recycled orogen and from transitional continental sediments. The Laiyang Group on Lingshan Island has been sourced from igneous and metamorphic rocks. Comparing analyses of detrital minerals with rocks from surrounding areas leads to the conclusion that the main source area is the Sulu Orogen that supplied sediment to rift basin rather than a residual basin between the Yangtze Craton and the North China Craton.
A recycled orogenic belt is the source area for the Laiyang Group on Linshan Island.
Felsic metamorphic and igneous rocks form the most probable sources.
The rift basin was filled by sediments supplied from the Sulu Orogen on both sides.
12.
Isotopic age determinations on granitic rocks from Tasmania 总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0
Potassium‐argon and rubidium‐strontium isotopic age measurements show that emplacement of granitic rocks in Tasmania occurred during the Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous and in pre‐Devonian times, possibly in the Cambrian. In addition, a Precambrian granite, dated at about 750 m.y., has been recognized on the west coast of King Island. The granitic bodies of pre‐Devonian age include the Murchison River Granite, the Dove River Granite and its correlatives, and the adamellite on the southwest coast of Tasmania at Elliott Bay. These rocks were deformed during the Devonian Tabberabberan Orogeny with the result that leakage of radiogenic daughter products has occurred from minerals. Hence the indicated ages are younger than the true ages. Possibly these granitic rocks were emplaced during the Jukesian Movement of the Tyennan Orogeny, in the Late Cambrian, although a Precambrian age cannot be excluded for some of the bodies. As recognized by earlier workers the most important period of emplacement of granitic rocks in Tasmania was in the Middle Palaeozoic. The measured dates for this group of rocks range from 375 to 335 m.y., and indicate that intrusion occurred over an extended period from the Late Devonian to the Early or possibly Middle Carboniferous. There are distinct concentrations of measured ages at about 370 and 340 m.y. The granitic bodies of northeast Tasmania mainly yield the older age, whereas those of northwest Tasmania give the younger age. As the granites are post‐tectonic bodies the older age of about 375 m.y. provides a younger limit to the time of completion of the main folding in the Tabberabberan Orogeny, and this is consistent with the stratigraphic evidence. The evidence suggests that generation of granitic magma was initiated during the main folding associated with the Tabberabberan Orogeny, but that emplacement of the granites into the upper crust continued over a long period subsequently to the main folding phase. Alternatively, the younger granitic bodies, dated at about 340 m.y., may indicate that these rocks are related to the Early Carboniferous Kanimblan Orogeny recognized in Victoria and New South Wales; however, there is no field evidence to support such a proposition. 相似文献
13.
AbstractThe Jurassic–Cretaceous Great Artesian Basin is the most extensive, and largest volume, sedimentary feature of continental Australia. The source of its mud-dominated Cretaceous infill is attributed largely to contemporary magmatism along the continental margin to the east, but the source of its Jurassic infill, dominated by quartz sandstone, remains unconstrained. This paper investigates the question of a Jurassic sediment source for the northern part of the basin. Jurassic uplift and exhumation of the continental margin crustal sector to the east provided the primary Jurassic sediment source. (U–Th)/He data are presented for zircon and apatite from Pennsylvanian to mid Permian granitoids of the Kennedy Igneous Association distributed within the northern Tasmanides between the Townsville and Cairns regions and for coeval granites of the Urannha batholith from the Mount Carlton district (N Bowen Basin), also within the northern Tasmanides. The data from zircon indicate widespread Jurassic exhumation of a crustal tract located to the east of the northern Great Artesian Basin and largely occupied by rocks of the Tasmanides. Detrital zircon age spectra for samples of the Jurassic Hutton and Blantyre sandstones from the northeastern margin of the Great Artesian Basin show their derivation to be largely from rocks of the northern Tasmanides. In combination, the detrital age spectra and (U–Th)/He data from zircon indicate exhumation owing to uplift generating appreciable physiographic relief along the north Queensland continental margin during the Jurassic, shedding sediment westward into the Great Artesian Basin during its early development. A portion of (U–Th)/He data for zircon are consistent with late Permian–mid Triassic exhumation within the Tasmanides, attributable to the influence of the Hunter--Bowen Orogeny. Evidence of Cretaceous and Paleocene exhumation episodes is also indicated for some samples, mainly by apatite (U–Th)/He analysis, consistent with data previously published from fission track studies. Overall, new data from the present study reveal that the exhumation related to Jurassic regional uplift and the subsequent erosional reworking of the northeast Australian continental margin is critical for the evolution and development of the northern side of the Great Artesian Basin in eastern Australia. Apart from this, another two previously suggested Permian–Triassic and Cretaceous exhumation and uplift episodes along the northeast Australian continental margin are also confirmed by the dataset of this study.
- KEY POINTS
U–Pb detrital zircon ages of sandstone samples from the northeastern Eromanga Basin reveal Paleozoic (480–280 Ma) and Proterozoic (1800–1400 Ma) age clusters.
(U–Th)/He zircon and apatite dating results of granitoids samples from Cairns, Townsville and the Mount Carlton districts are dominated by Jurassic (198–164 Ma) and Permian–Triassic (272–238 Ma) age clusters.
Combination of above two datasets proves the regional uplift-driving Jurassic exhumation episode in the northeast Australian continental is vital for the development of the northern Great Artesian Basin.
14.
P. S. Plummer 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(5):739-747
AbstractReview and analysis of 1332 gas chromatography (GC) n-alkane traces of oils from the Cooper and Eromanga basins indicate the shape of any GC trace profile is primarily controlled by the degree of organic maturity (early, peak or late) at which the oils were expelled from the parent source rock, rather than indicating the depositional environment, and hence organic composition, of that source rock. The depositional environment of a source rock may still be inferred, however, from the position of the n-alkane maximum on the GC traces of early expulsion oils in association with the pour point of the oil. Departures of GC trace profiles from the standard early, peak or late expulsion profiles can indicate mixing of oils of different maturities, while variations in the GC trace profiles of oils within adjacent reservoir units may indicate phase separation of the parent liquid, or possible seal breach by an accumulation that exceeds the capacity of its overlying seal.
- KEY POINTS
GC trace profiles of 1332 oils from across the Cooper and Eromanga basins of central Australia have been reviewed.
Organic maturity, rather than organic composition, of the parent source rock controls the shape of any GC trace profile.
All early maturity oils display a consistent GC trace profile shape that is different from all peak maturity oils and different again from all late maturity oils.
Depositional environment of the source rocks within a basin can be inferred from the relative pour points of the resultant oils.
15.
AbstractThe shape and structural development of the box-like Parrabel Dome (PD) within the Hastings Block is poorly understood because it has only been weakly cleaved, complexly folded and extensively faulted in comparison to the adjoining blocks. Better characterising this block will provide important controls on the tectonics of the southern New England Orogen. The structural development of the PD and southern Hastings Block (SHB) provides evidence of the degree of rotation, translation and deformation of the Hastings Block, a key terrane within the southern New England Orogen. A major decollement under the Hastings Block–Nambucca Block was suggested to facilitate south-directed deformation caused by the developing Coffs Harbour Orocline. The orientation of bedding and the stratigraphic facing of some fault blocks within the northern Hastings Block (NHB) are consistent with development of the PD, while other fault blocks indicate significant disruption of the NHB prior to, during and after dome development. A deep-seated fault is suggested by the gravity worm analysis consistent with the boundary zone between the PD, NHB-Yarrowitch Block and the east-dipping and younging sequences in the SHB. The eastern limb of the PD underwent clockwise rotation after formation. Fault blocks have been rotated and translated within a restraining bend as the NHB moved post-PD formation northwest along the interface between the NHB and SHB.
- KEY POINTS
The Hastings Block was translated and rotated into its current position from the southeastern end of the Tamworth Belt.
Gravity worm data indicate a boundary between northern and southern Hastings Block.
The Hastings and Nambucca blocks have been detached from the basement Gondwana rocks.
Fault block analysis within the Parrabel Dome, northern Hastings Block indicates relocation of some blocks by faulting.
16.
T. J. Wells S. Meffre D. R. Cooke J. A. Steadman J. L. Hoye 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(5):717-738
AbstractFour economic porphyry Cu–Au deposits and several prospects have been investigated in the Northparkes district, part of the Ordovician to early Silurian Junee–Narromine Belt of the Macquarie Arc, New whole-rock geochemical data from the Northparkes porphyry Cu–Au district, NSW, indicate that the mineralising intrusive complexes exhibit distinct arc signatures that are transitional from high-K calc-alkaline to silica-saturated alkalic. Based on ratios of Sr/Y vs Y (e.g. Sr/Y > ～20 and Y < ～17?ppm) the mineralising intrusions are interpreted to have crystallised from fractionated hydrous melts indicating the suppression of plagioclase crystallisation in favour of hydrous mineral phases. This interpretation is supported by listric-shaped rare earth element curves and the presence of primary hornblende phenocrysts indicating elevated magmatic water contents. There is an association of mineralising intrusions with a low Zr trend both in the mineralised Northparkes district intrusive rocks and in mineralised porphyry-related intrusive rocks globally. A newly developed fertility indicator ratio Zr/Y ～10% is more accurate at identifying the mineralised rocks at Northparkes than the conventional Sr/Y vs Y fertility indicator diagram, successfully identifying 92% of the mineralising intrusions, mainly owing to the fact that it is less affected by hydrothermal alteration. The insensitivity of Zr–Y to alteration makes this indicator a useful new tool that may lead to enhanced probabilities for future discoveries in the Northparkes district, broader Macquarie Arc and altered rocks globally.
- KEY POINTS
Mineralising intrusions in the Northparkes district have distinct Zr vs Y concentrations.
The Zr vs Y indicator of magmatic fertility is less sensitive to alteration than Sr-based indicators.
The Zr vs Y magmatic fertility indicator identified at Northparkes is not unique and identifies mineralising intrusions in other porphyry fields.
17.
A geochronological framework for orogenic gold mineralisation in central Victoria, Australia 总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3
Frank P. Bierlein Dennis C. Arne David A. Foster Peter Reynolds 《Mineralium Deposita》2001,36(8):741-767
New 40Ar/39Ar geochronological data support, and significantly expand upon, preliminary age data that were interpreted to suggest an episodic and diachronous emplacement of gold across the western Lachlan fold belt, Australia. These geochronological data indicate that mineralisation in the central Victorian gold province occurred in response to episodic, eastward progressing deformation, metamorphism and exhumation associated with the formation of the western Lachlan fold belt. Initial gold formation throughout the Stawell and the Bendigo structural zones can be constrained to a broad interval of time between 455 and 435 Ma, with remobilisation of metals into new structures and/or new pulses of mineralisation occurring between 420 and 400 Ma, and again between 380 and 370 Ma, linked to episodic variations in the regional stress-field and during intrusion of felsic dykes and plutons. This separation of ages is incompatible with the view that gold emplacement in the western Lachlan fold belt was the result of a single, orogen-wide event during the Devonian. A distinct phase of gold mineralisation, characterised by elevated Cu, Mo, Sb or W, is associated with both Late Silurian to Early Devonian (~420 to 400 Ma) and Middle to Late Devonian (~380 to 370 Ma) magmatism, when crustal thickening and shortening during the ongoing consolidation of the western Lachlan Fold Belt led to extensive melt development in the lower crust and resulted in widespread magmatism throughout central Victoria. These ~420 to 400 Ma and ~380 to 370 Ma occurrences, best exemplified by the Wonga deposit in the Stawell structural zone and many of the Woods Point deposits in the Melbourne structural zone, but also evidenced by occurrences at Fosterville and Maldon in the Bendigo structural zone, clearly formed synchronous with, or post-date, the emplacement of plutons and dykes, and thus are spatially (if not genetically) related to melt generation at depth. This later, magmatic-associated and polymetallic type of gold mineralisation is economically subordinate to the earlier, metamorphic-associated type of gold deposition in the Stawell and Bendigo structural zones, but tends to be the dominant style in the Melbourne Zone. These new geochronological constraints, together with zircon U-Pb data from felsic intrusive rocks of known relationship to gold mineralisation, demonstrate that initial hydrothermal alteration associated with gold emplacement in the western Lachlan fold belt was metamorphic-related, predating the emplacement of granite plutons by as much as 80 million years. This timing differs from other important orogenic gold districts where gold deposition is closely associated spatially with felsic magmatism. The early introduction of metamorphically derived fluids well before magmatism may reflect variations in the timing of peak metamorphic conditions at different crustal levels in an accretionary prism undergoing simultaneous deformation and erosion. Consequently, no genetic link exists between the main phase(s) of gold mineralisation and magmatism in the central Victorian gold province. With the exception of formation of a minor magmatism-related and geochemically-distinct mineralisation style at about 420 to 400 Ma, and again at about 380 to 370 Ma, the apparent spatial relationship between gold mineralisation and felsic intrusions is merely the result of melts and fluids being channelised along the same structures. 相似文献
18.
T. J. Munson S. W. Denyszyn J. M. Simmons M. Kunzmann 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(3):321-330
AbstractAn interpreted CA–IDTIMS age of 1642.2?±?3.9?Ma for a volcanogenic tuffaceous siltstone from the previously undated Fraynes Formation of the Birrindudu Basin in the northwestern Northern Territory enables a rigorous chronostratigraphic correlation to be made with the economically important Barney Creek Formation of the southern McArthur Basin. This result supports previous interpretations that these geographically widely separated formations are probably linked in the subsurface. It also establishes the stratigraphic interval encompassing the Fraynes and Barney Creek formations as a potential target for greenfields base metals and petroleum exploration programs across the greater McArthur Basin.
- KEY POINTS
A new interpreted CA–IDTIMS age provides a chronostratigraphic link between the Fraynes Formation of the Birrindudu Basin and the economically important Barney Creek Formation of the southern McArthur Basin.
The Fraynes and Barney Creek formations are probably linked in the subsurface.
This stratigraphic level is a potential target for greenfields base metals and petroleum exploration across the greater McArthur Basin.
19.
AbstractTwo north–south-trending belts of high-temperature–low-pressure (HTLP) sub-regional metamorphism have been identified in the New England Orogen of eastern Australia. Metamorphic complexes in the ～1300?km long Early-Permian Inland belt have ages ca 300–290?Ma, and those of the ～400?km long Mid-Permian Coastal belt ca 275–270?Ma. These periods correspond to the beginning and end of an extended (early–mid Permian) phase of subduction rollback and crustal thinning in eastern Australia. This paper describes and incorporates recent work on the Wongwibinda Metamorphic Complex in the southern New England Orogen as a basis for comparison with thirteen other HTLP sub-regional occurrences within the orogen. These are described in as much detail as is currently available. Some outcrops of HTLP rocks in difficult terrain have been subject to limited study and only conditional comparisons can be made. However, a significant number of characteristics shared between the complexes including: their location at the higher-temperature end of broad areas of very low-grade to greenschist facies metamorphic rocks, indicative of tilted crustal blocks; their association with major shear zones; the presence of migmatite at the high-temperature end of a steep metamorphic field gradient; the presence of two-mica granite formed by the melting of the local sedimentary pile; and temporal association with S-type granites; imply a common extension-related mechanism of formation for these HTLP belts. The connection with major faults and shear zones suggests the belts trace major crustal-scale extensional structures that migrated eastwards from ca 300 to 270?Ma.
- KEY POINTS
Two previously undocumented belts of HTLP subregional metamorphism are identified within the NEO.
Available dating indicates that metamorphism occurred along the belts at the beginning and end of a major early–mid Permian extensional phase in eastern Gondwana/Australia.
The characteristics of the HTLP complexes including their association with shear zones indicates they may delineate major loci of extension.
20.
D-D. Wang G-Q. Dong G-C. Zhang Z-X. Li Q. Mao G-Z. Song 《Australian Journal of Earth Sciences》2020,67(3):393-409
AbstractCoal measures located in marginal sea basins are important hydrocarbon source rocks. For the purpose of effectively guiding future oil and gas exploration, the characteristics and distribution patterns of coal seams in coal measures of a marginal sea basin are systematically outlined. Coal measures in marginal sea basins can have large thicknesses, but the individual coal seams can be very thin and lack lateral continuity. In the study area, the organic micro-components of the coal are dominated by vitrinite, with very low amounts of inertinite and liptinite. The amount of inorganic microscopic components is large, but with limited drilling results, few cores and thin coal seams, which are easily overlooked during logging activities, a comprehensive analysis of the logging data may improve efficiency in coal-seam identification and thickness determination. The development and distribution of coal seams in marginal sea basins are controlled by various factors, including (1) paleoclimatic and paleobotanic conditions, which could fundamentally limit coal formation, (2) coal-forming sedimentary environmental conditions that may limit the scope of coal-seam development from a macroscopic perspective, and (3) paleotectonic and paleotopographic conditions that define the coal-forming structures. Therefore, the descending and rising cycles of base-levels, along with changes in the growth rates of the accommodation spaces, can be used to determine the horizons that are potentially favourable for coal formation and can also indicate the migration trends of coal-forming environments on the structural plane. Seismic wave impedance inversion methods could be utilised for semi-quantitative assistance for prediction of coal seams. In summary, for models of coal-seam development in marginal sea basins, the grades should be divided according to reliability, and the different reliability levels should be predicted separately.
The characteristics of coal seams developed in marginal sea basins are described.
The macerals of coals developed in marginal sea basins have been ascertained.
A development model and distribution prediction method for coal seams are assessed according to the control factors.
A model for the prediction of coal-seam distribution is presented.