A Proterozoic Wilson cycle identified by Hf isotopes in central Australia: Implications for the assembly of Proterozoic Australia and Rodinia

The burning heart — The Proterozoic geology and geological evolution of the west Musgrave Region, central Australia

“…These studies point out that the early evolution of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny (Stage I) coincided with the Mount West Orogeny in the Musgrave Province, and the later evolution (Stage II) with the Musgrave Orogeny. Both sets of coincided events have been linked to the final convergence of the South Australian Craton towards the combined North and West Australian Cratons (Stage I/Mount West Orogeny; Giles et al, 2004;Betts and Giles, 2006;Cawood and Korsch, 2008; Stage II/Musgrave Orogeny; Myers et al, 1996;Smits et al, 2014). These conflicting views demonstrate the importance of understanding not only the individual provinces, but also the relationships between them.…”

“…Most models propose amalgamation of the West and North Australian Cratons prior to connecting with the South Australian Craton, and all major cratonic components being in place by at least c. 1290 Ma (e.g. Giles et al, 2004;Betts and Giles, 2006;Cawood and Korsch, 2008) or by c. 1100 Ma (Myers et al, 1996;Smits et al, 2014). These studies point out that the early evolution of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny (Stage I) coincided with the Mount West Orogeny in the Musgrave Province, and the later evolution (Stage II) with the Musgrave Orogeny.…”

Early Palaeozoic continental growth in the Tasmanides of northeast Gondwana and its implications for Rodinia assembly and rifting

“…9 and 10). A proposed eastward extension of the central Australian Musgrave Province is consistent with the AUSMEX reconstruction of Rodinia with a link to the Grenville Orogen of eastern Laurentia (Wingate et al, 2002;Pisarevsky et al, 2003;Smits et al, 2014) but not considered in other syntheses of the Rodinia reconstruction (Li et al, 2008).…”

“…This suggestion was subsequently overlooked with emphasis placed on Paleoproterozoic connections between the North and South Australian cratons (Betts and Giles, 2006;Cawood and Korsch, 2008). However new isotopic data supports the interpretation of the Musgrave-Albany-Fraser belt as a collisional suture formed in the final assembly of the Australian continent in Grenville time (Smits et al, 2014). This interpretation is also supported by a contemporary review of the Musgrave Province (Howard et al, 2015) which describes a complex orogenic history, with major episodes of igneous activity between 1345 and 1150 Ma followed by rift-related bimodal magmatism at ~1090-1040 Ma.…”

“…The Grenville Orogeny is regarded as perhaps the most significant event of crustal reorganisation in Earth history (Van Kranendonk and Kirkland, 2013) with global effects which embraced the Albany-FraserMusgrave belt which extends obliquely across Australia (Smits et al, 2014). The age diversity apparent for Australian Precambrian terrains lying to the west of the Tasmanides coupled with the tight, unimodal Grenville age distributions shown by zircon age spectra from some Thomson Orogen samples (Fig.…”