Proterozoic basement provinces of southern and southwestern Australia, and their correlation with Antarctica

Abstract

Three Precambrian basement provinces extend from the southern coast of Australia into East Antarctica when reconstructed in a Gondwana configuration. These are, from east to west, the Mawson Craton, and the Albany-Fraser and Pinjarra Orogens. The Mawson Craton preserves evidence for tectonic activity from the late Archaean until the earliest Mesoproterozoic. It is exposed in the Gawler Craton of South Australia, the Terre Adélie and King George V Land coastline of East Antarctica, and the Miller Range of the central Transantarctic Mountains. It may form a significant part of the ice-covered East Antarctic Shield, although insufficient data are available to constrain its lateral extent. The Mawson Craton underwent late Palaeoproterozoic tectonism along its eastern margin (the Kimban Orogeny) and the occurrence of c. 1700Ma eclogites in the Transantarctic Mountains implies that this was, in part, a collisional event, although elsewhere it was characterized by low P/T metamorphism. The western margin of the Mawson Craton collided with a continental fragment comprising the Nawa Domain of the Gawler Craton, the Coompana Block and the Nornalup Complex of Western Australia at c. 1560Ma during the Kararan Orogeny. The western edge of the Nornalup Complex later collided with the Biranup and Fraser Complexes and Yilgarn Craton to form the Albany-Fraser Orogen during two stages of tectonism at c. 1350–1260 and 1210–1140Ma. The Pinjarra Orogen truncates the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton and Albany-Fraser Orogen, and contains allochthonous 1100–1000Ma gneissic blocks transported along the craton margin during at least two stages of Neoproterozoic transcurrent movement. It divides East Gondwana into Australo-Antarctic and Indo-Antarctic domains, which are distinct continental fragments with different Proterozoic histories that were juxtaposed by oblique collision at 550–500Ma during the assembly of Gondwana. The path taken by the Pinjarra Orogen beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is unknown, but it is of similar width and length to the East African Orogen, and must have been a fundamental Neoproterozoic boundary of critical importance to supercontinent assembly and breakup.

Detrital zircon U–Pb ages of the Proterozoic metaclastic-sedimentary rocks in Hainan Province of South China: New constraints on the depositional time, source area, and tectonic setting of the Shilu Fe–Co–Cu ore district

“…9g), the Windmill Island in Bunger Hills of northeastern Antarctica (1300-1050 Ma) and the Maud belt of western Antarctica (1300-1070 Ma) (Fig. 9h), and the Wilks-Albany-Fraser belt in Australia (1300-1050 Ma) (Fitzsimons, 2000a(Fitzsimons, , 2000b(Fitzsimons, , 2003Will et al, 2009 and references therein). Further the detrital zircon ages of ca.…”

“…1300-1000 Ma) for detrital zircons from both the Shilu Group and the Shihuiding Formation indicate their derivation from Laurentia and/or Australia. Based on detailed work in the Grenville province of North America, Rivers (1997) proposed that the Grenville orogeny actually comprised several distinct accretion and collisional events at a Mesoproterozoic convergent margin, including arc accretion at 1250-1190 Ma and pulses of tectonism during protracted continental collision at 1190-1140 Ma, 1080-1020 Ma, and 1000-980 Ma (Fitzsimons, 2003). The detrital zircons from both the Shilu Group and the Shihuiding Formation also reveal the presence of three age populations at 1217-1140 Ma, 1070 Ma, and 970 Ma (Fig.…”

“…11. Possible positions of South China and Hainan Island in Rodinia, modified after Hoffman (1991) and Fitzsimons (2000aFitzsimons ( , 2000bFitzsimons ( , 2003.…”

Peak and post–peak development of UHT metamorphism at Mather Peninsula, Rauer Islands: Zircon and monazite U–Th–Pb and REE chemistry constraints

“…With this has come the realization that the Prydz Bay region of East Antarctica is of central importance in establishing where the final suturing of Gondwana took place (e.g., Fitzsimons, 2003), the period of time over which this occurred, and what impacts this may have had on adjoining areas in former Gondwana.…”

“…Conversely, the timing of amalgamation, potentially via suturing, can be constrained by identification of the earliest magmatism, sedimentation or tectonothermal events shared by formerly distinct terranes (e.g., Fitzsimons, 2000Fitzsimons, , 2003Harley, 2003).…”