Evidence for Early Mesoproterozoic Arc Magmatism in the Musgrave Block, Central Australia: Implications for Proterozoic Crustal Growth and Tectonic Reconstructions of Australia

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

“…Daniels, 1974;Major and Conor, 1993;Glikson et al, 1996;Edgoose et al, 2004), but there have been relatively few more detailed studies of aspects of the crustal evolution and tectonic relationship with bounding terrains (e.g. Gray, 1971;Maboko, 1988;Camacho, 1997;White, 1997;Scrimgeour et al, 2005;Wade et al, 2006;Aitken and Betts, 2008;Wade et al, 2008;Aitken et al, 2009), given the size of the Musgrave Province. From early 2005, the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA), in partnership with the Ngaanyatjarra Council representing the local indigenous people in the region, has led a programme aimed at building on this early work to significantly improve the understanding of the geological evolution of the province.…”

Pseudotachylyte as field evidence for lower-crustal earthquakes during the intracontinental Petermann Orogeny (Musgrave Block, Central Australia)

“…The Fregon Subdomain experienced granulite facies metamorphism during the Musgravian Orogeny, associated with the amalgamation of the Australian cratons at about 1.2 Ga (Gray, 1978;Wade et al, 2006). The voluminous Pitjantjatjara Supersuite, consisting mainly of granites and charnockites, was emplaced during the post-collisional stage (Smithies et al, 2011).…”

The source of A-type magmas in two contrasting settings: U–Pb, Lu–Hf and Re–Os isotopic constraints

“…The geometry of this arcrelated calc-alkaline magmatism, and that of the Musgrave arc to the north, places the Gawler FLIP within a post-back-arc environment (Swain et al, 2008;Wade et al, 2006). Betts et al (2009; used a synthesis of geologic, geochronological and geophysical data to propose a model that describes a plume head arrival as triggering the voluminous A-type magmatism, and progressed as hotspot-like magmatism across the eastern terranes of Proterozoic Australia.…”