Distribution of Palaeozoic reworking in the Western Arunta Region and northwestern Amadeus Basin from 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology: implications for the evolution of intracratonic basins期刊界 All Journals 搜尽天下杂志传播学术成果专业期刊搜索期刊信息化学术搜索

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Distribution of Palaeozoic reworking in the Western Arunta Region and northwestern Amadeus Basin from ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronology: implications for the evolution of intracratonic basins

Authors:	Sandra McLaren Mike Sandiford† W James Dunlap Ian Scrimgeour‡ Dorothy Close‡ Christine Edgoose‡

Institution:	Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Northern Territory Geological Survey, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Abstract:	The Centralian Superbasin in central Australia is one of the most extensive intracratonic basins known from a stable continental setting, but the factors controlling its formation and subsequent structural dismemberment continue to be debated. Argon thermochronology of K-feldspar, sensitive to a broad range of temperatures (～150 to 350 °C), provides evidence for the former extent and thickness of the superbasin and points toward thickening of the superbasin succession over the now exhumed Arunta Region basement. These data suggest that before Palaeozoic tectonism, there was around 5–6 km of sediment present over what is now the northern margin of the Amadeus Basin, and, if the Centralian superbasin was continuous, between 6 and 8 km over the now exhumed basement. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data from neoformed fine-grained muscovite suggests that Palaeozoic deformation and new mineral growth occurred during the earliest compressional phase of the Alice Springs Orogeny (ASO) (440–375 Ma) and was restricted to shear zones. Significantly, several shear zones active during the late Mesoproterozoic Teapot Orogeny were not reactivated at this time, suggesting that the presence of pre-existing structures was not the only controlling factor in localizing Palaeozoic deformation. A range of Palaeozoic ages of 440–300 Ma from samples within and external to shear zones points to thermal disturbance from at least the early Silurian through until the late Carboniferous and suggests final cooling and exhumation of the terrane in this interval. The absence of evidence for active deformation and/or new mineral growth in the late stages of the ASO (350–300 Ma) is consistent with a change in orogenic dynamics from thick-skinned regionally extensive deformation to a more restricted localized high-geothermal gradient event.

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