The early Cretaceous marine transgression and its significance for landscape interpretation |
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| Institution: | Department of Geology and Geophysics , University of Adelaide , GPO Box 498, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Significant elements of the Australian landscape date from Mesozoic or earlier times. Australia did not separate completely from other Gondwanan components until Early Tertiary times and these Mesozoic and older elements can therefore be regarded as Gondwanan. During the separation and northern drift of the continent and particularly in Late Jurassic and earlier Cretaceous times the sea invaded and spread across much of the erstwhile landmass. The associated sediments not only covered and preserved much of the pre‐existing land surface, but they also augmented the effects of thalassostatic loading of the basins, causing further subsidence. Hinge lines developed near the coastal zones of the times, so that subsidence of the basins caused adjacent land masses to rise. Many old land surfaces have been re‐exposed at the former oceanic margins, but epigene forms are preserved high in the relief on the uplifted blocks. They survive partly because, as Crickmay (1976) suggested, rivers effectively erode at and near their channels; the divides remain untouched. A reinforcement effect also operates because the valleys are wet sites, the interfluves dry. Hence weathering and erosion proceed apace in the former while the latter are stable, allowing palaeoforms to survive. |
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| Keywords: | Gondwanan landscapes Exhumed surfaces Epigene surfaces Thalassostatic isostasy Denudational isostasy Unequal activity |
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