Geoff Fraser

Geochronology and provenance of the Late Paleozoic accretionary wedge and Gympie Terrane, New England Orogen, eastern Australia∗

In easternmost Australia, the New England Orogen contains a geological record dominated by subduction-related rocks, with plate convergence during the Late Devonian to Triassic being related to a west-dipping subduction system, assuming present-day orientation, at the boundary of eastern Gondwanaland and the Panthalassan Ocean. A well-preserved Late Paleozoic accretionary wedge contains deep-marine turbidites deposited as trench fill, plus infaulted slices of oceanic crust. The turbidites are mostly first-cycle, immature, quartz-poor, volcanic-derived sedimentary rocks, some of which contain detrital hornblende, along with less-common quartz-rich sandstones to the east. In this study, detrital zircons from sandstones in various tectonic blocks of the New England Orogen are dated by the U–Pb SHRIMP and LA-ICPMS techniques and detrital hornblendes by the Ar–Ar technique to constrain the age and provenance of sedimentary rocks in the accretionary wedge. All samples, except two quartz-rich sandstones from the northern Shoalwater Formation, have maximum depositional ages of 355–316 Ma, indicating that the accretionary wedge evolved over a period of at least 40 Ma, with principal sources from a contemporaneous active continental margin volcanic arc. Quartz-rich sandstones from the easternmost part of the accretionary wedge (Shoalwater Formation and eastern Beenleigh Block) contain a greater range of individual detrital zircon ages from Late Paleozoic to Archean (several individual grains >3000 Ma). These ages indicate that, although detritus from Carboniferous volcanic arc sources was involved, quartz-rich detritus mostly derived from the continental interior dominated the depocentres. We suggest that these quartz-rich sandstones accumulated from longitudinal transport along the trench, like the modern-day Barbados Ridge accretionary wedge, along with breaching of the marginal arc by streams draining the continental interior.

Geological relationships and 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on gold mineralisation at Tarcoola, central Gawler gold province, South Australia

The Tarcoola Goldfield is one of several districts included in the recently proposed central Gawler gold province. Understanding of the genesis of the deposits in this metallogenic province is in its infancy, and dating the age of alteration, mineralisation and microdiorite dyke intrusions has been carried out at Tarcoola as a first step towards developing mineral‐systems models for the province. At Tarcoola, four samples of sericite from alteration as well as one sample of hornblende from a microdiorite dyke yield 40Ar/39Ar ages of ca 1580 Ma. Geological and petrological relationships suggest that this age represents the time of fracture‐controlled Au mineralisation. These data provide evidence for coeval Au mineralisation, microdiorite dyke intrusion and local deformation. This mineralisation age is indistinguishable from U–Pb ages for the regional Gawler Range—Hiltaba volcano‐plutonic complex, and is more than 100 million years younger than the Paxton Granite, which is part‐host to the mineralisation. Possible temporal and genetic relationships with other deposits in the central Gawler gold province remain to be tested.

Age and geochemistry of magmatism on the oceanic Wallaby Plateau and implications for the opening of the Indian Ocean

The temporal relationship between tectonic and volcanic activity on passive continental margins immediately before and after the initiation of mid-ocean ridge spreading is poorly understood because ...

Ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb dating of Upper Cretaceous volcanics from the northern Lord Howe Rise, Tasman Sea

Rock samples recovered during the Australian–French AUSFAIR MD153 Survey in 2006 from the northern Lord Howe Rise and the Fairway Ridge provide new constraints on the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the region and represent significant new information from a region in which few rocks have been dated. SHRIMP U–Pb dating of zircon from rocks from the Lord Howe Rise indicates alkali volcanism in the area at 97 Ma (trachyte) and 74 Ma (latite). The older volcanic activity is probably related to the widespread Late Cretaceous magmatism along the eastern Gondwana margin, whereas the younger activity may be related to the opening of the Tasman Sea or rifting in the New Caledonia Basin. The pebbly clasts and shell fossils in some of the associated volcaniclastic rocks provide evidence for the existence of landmasses as a sediment source area in the northern Lord Howe Rise region, and the initial marine incursion into the area around Campanian time.

Timing of deformation and exhumation across the Karari Shear Zone, north-western Gawler Craton, South Australia

In the north-western Gawler Craton of South Australia, the Karari Shear Zone defines a boundary between late-Archean to earliest Paleoproterozoic rocks, which have remained largely undisturbed since the earliest Paleoproterozoic, and younger Paleoproterozoic rocks that have been reworked through multiple late Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic metamorphic and deformation events. The history of movement across the Karari Shear Zone has been investigated via new U–Pb and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, in combination with pre-existing geochronological and metamorphic constraints, as well as the structural geometry revealed by a recently acquired reflection seismic transect. The available data suggest a complex history of shear-zone movement in at least four stages, with contrasting sense of motion at different times. The first period of movement across the Karari Shear Zone is inferred to have been a period of extension at ca 1750–1720 Ma. This was likely closely followed by reactivation during the Kimban Orogeny between ca 1720 and 1680 Ma, although the sense of movement during this period is unclear. Further reactivation, in a thrust sense, occurred between ca 1580 and 1560 Ma, resulting in significant exhumation of marginal domains of the Gawler Craton to the north of the Karari Shear Zone. A final episode of largely strike-slip shear-zone movement occurred at ca 1450 Ma.

40Ar/39Ar evidence for the timing of Paleoproterozoic gold mineralisation at the Sandpiper Deposit, Tanami region, northern Australia

At the Sandpiper gold deposit in the Tanami region of northern Australia sericite is intimately intergrown with arsenopyrite in gold-bearing quartz veins and breccias, suggesting sericite crystallisation synchronous with gold-bearing fluid flow. This ore-stage sericite yields a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 1785 ± 32 Ma (2σ including both analytical and systematic uncertainties). Recalculation using revised and more precise values for the 40K decay constants and the age of the Fish Canyon Sanidine standard shifts the age to 1794 ±12 Ma (2σ including all known uncertainties). Given the possibility of post-mineralisation isotopic resetting this age can be conservatively interpreted as a minimum constraint on the timing of gold deposition although, given local geological relationships and estimates for the argon retentivity of white mica, we consider complete isotopic resetting to be unlikely. The preferred interpretation is, therefore, that the sericite 40Ar/39Ar age indicates the timing of gold mineralisation. Thesericite age accords with a limited dataset of 207Pb/206Pb xenotime ages of ca 1800 Ma from other gold deposits in the Tanami region, interpreted as mineralisation ages. The agreement between independently derived ages from several gold deposits lends support for a widespread gold-mineralising event at ca 1800 Ma in the Tanami region.

Mesoproterozoic rift sedimentation, fluid events and uranium prospectivity in the Cariewerloo Basin, Gawler Craton, South Australia

ABSTRACT The Cariewerloo Basin formed in the Mesoproterozoic following assembly of the Gawler Craton, South Australia, and was filled by arenaceous redbeds of the Pandurra Formation. While previous regional-scale work reveals a basin with similar size and sedimentary fill to the Proterozoic Athabasca and Kombolgie basins that host unconformity-related uranium deposits, few details of the Cariewerloo Basin are known. In this study, stratigraphy, petrography, lithogeochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology are integrated to clarify the depositional history of the Pandurra Formation, and to assess fluid events in the basin that could be linked to the formation of uranium deposits. In the study area, the Pandurra Formation was deposited in two eastward-thickening packages that terminate at faulted basement uplifts, interpreted as half-grabens that formed in a continental rift system as the eastern Gawler Craton underwent extension. Deposition occurred between 1575 Ma (latest Hiltaba Suite age) and ca 1490 Ma, the 40Ar/39Ar age of diagenetic illite in the basal Pandurra. Diagenesis involving fluids having δ18O and δ2H values between –2.1 and 3.6‰, and between –66 and –8‰, respectively, occurred at around 150°C. Protracted diagenesis preferentially occurred in the upper Pandurra Formation based on petrography and Pearce Element Ratios that show complete replacement of detrital lithic and feldspathic grains by diagenetic phyllosilicates, and younger 40Ar/39Ar ages between ca 1330 and 1200 Ma that record fluid events later into basin history. Conversely, the basal Pandurra Formation shows better preservation of detrital grains, and older 40Ar/39Ar ages around 1450 Ma that suggest these strata became closed to fluid flow earlier in basin history. Although, based on O-isotope ratios, fluid–rock interaction did not occur in the Cariewerloo Basin to the same extent as that in the Athabasca or Kombolgie basins, it is possible that a uranium deposit formed where the upper Pandurra Formation was in contact with metasedimentary basement units outside the present basin margins.