The phanerozoic sedimentary basins of Australia and their tectonic implications

Doutch, H.F.; Nicholas, E.

doi:10.1016/0040-1951(78)90124-5

Cited by 22 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Several tectonic models have been proposed for the formation of the Centralian Superbasin, with attention mainly focussed on the well‐documented Amadeus Basin. Extensional models for the Amadeus Basin include aulacogen models (Rutland, 1976; Veevers, 1976; Doutch & Nicholas, 1978; Bozhkov, 1986), and a pull‐apart basin model (Veevers, 1984). Lambeck (1983, 1984) and McQueen & Beaumont (1989) proposed compressional models for basin formation, involving crustal warping and block faulting as a result of north–south shortening.…”

Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing long‐term patterns of basin sedimentation by detrital zircon geochronology, Centralian Superbasin, Australia

2007

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Detrital zircon geochronology of Neoproterozoic to Devonian sedimentary rocks from the Georgina and Amadeus basins has been used to track changes in provenance that reflect the development and inversion of the former Australian Superbasin. Through much of the Neoproterozoic, sediments appear to have been predominantly derived from local sources in the Arunta and Musgrave inliers. Close similarities between the detrital age signatures of late Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks in the two basins suggests that they were contiguous at this time. A dominant population of 1.2–1.0 Ga zircon in Early Cambrian sediments of the Amadeus Basin reflects the uplift of the Musgrave Inlier during the Petermann Orogeny between 560 and 520 Ma, which shed a large volume of detritus northwards into the Amadeus Basin. Early Cambrian sedimentary rocks in the Georgina Basin have a much smaller proportion of 1.2–1.0 Ga detritus, possibly due to the formation of sub‐basins along the northern margin of the Amadeus Basin which might have acted as a barrier to sediment transfer. An influx of 0.6–0.5 Ga zircon towards the end of the Cambrian coincides with the transgression of the Larapintine Sea across central Australia, possibly as a result of intracratonic rifting. Detrital zircon age spectra of sedimentary rocks deposited within this epicontinental sea are very similar to those of coeval sedimentary rocks from the Pacific Gondwana margin, implying that sediment was transported into central Australia from the eastern continental margin. The remarkably consistent ‘Pacific Gondwana’ signature of Cambro‐Ordovician sediments in central and eastern Australia reflects a distal source, possibly from east Antarctica or the East African Orogen. The peak of the marine incursion into central Australia in the early to mid Ordovician coincides with granulite‐facies metamorphism at mid‐crustal depths between the Amadeus and Georgina basins (the Larapinta Event). The presence of the epicontinental sea, the relative lack of a local basement zircon component in Cambro‐Ordovician sedimentary rocks and their maturity suggest that metamorphism was not accompanied by mountain building, consistent with an extensional or transtensional setting for this tectonism. Sediments deposited at ∼435–405 and ∼365 Ma during the Alice Springs Orogeny have detrital age signatures similar to those of Cambro‐Ordovician sedimentary rocks, reflecting uplift and reworking of the older succession into narrow foreland basins adjacent to the orogen.

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Section: Geological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing long‐term patterns of basin sedimentation by detrital zircon geochronology, Centralian Superbasin, Australia

2007

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“…As illustrated by the cross-section in Fig. 9.42, it is underlain by the Petrel Graben, which contains Late Silurian and Early Devonian red beds and evaporites in the lower central portion, followed by Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous limestone reefs and deep-water'equivalents (Doutch and Nicholas 1978). From the Permian Period onward, sedimentation (including coal seams) spread beyond the confines of the Petrel Graben, which became buried deeper within the broadening basin as the continental margin warped under the accumulating load.…”

Section: Coalfields Of Mobile Shelf Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coal-Bearing Depositional Systems

Diessel¹

1992

399

416

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“…The region consists of Precambrian basement overlain by foreland basins that contain up to 6 km of folded and faulted clastic sediments. Deposition occurred during the west to east development of the Tasman fold belt system in mid-to late Paleozoic time[Doutch and Nichols, 1978;Schreibner, 1985]. The Interior Lowlands have been tectonically stable since the early Mesozoic, although marine and continental sediments have continued to accumulate in parts of the basins through the Tertiary[Doutch and Nichols, 1978].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective elastic thicknesses of the lithosphere and mechanisms of isostatic compensation in Australia

Zuber¹,

Bechtel²,

Forsyth³

1989

J. Geophys. Res.

121

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The isostatic compensation of the Australian lithosphere is examined using the coherence of the two‐dimensional Fourier transforms of Bouguer gravity and topography. The isostatic model assumes regional compensation of an elastic plate that undergoes flexure in response to surface and subsurface loading. A least squares inversion of the observed coherence for continental Australia yields an effective elastic thickness of 130 km (corresponding flexural rigidity of 2.0×1025 N m). The model indicates that loads with wavelengths of greater than 1500 km are locally compensated, loads with wavelengths in the range 600–1500 km are partially supported by the strength of the lithosphere, and loads with wavelengths of less than 600 km are almost completely supported by lithospheric strength. Regions within the continent with different ages and tectonic histories exhibit effective elastic thicknesses that increase with the time since lithospheric stabilization. Precambrian shields in western, northern, and southern Australia are well fit by an elastic plate with a thickness of the order of 100 km. The Phanerozoic Interior Lowlands have elastic thicknesses that range from 30 to 80 km, and the Eastern Highlands have thicknesses of 15–35 km. The theoretical model of predicted coherence, which assumes statistically independent surface and subsurface loads, does not provide a good fit to the coherence spectrum for the intracratonic basins of central Australia. The disagreement of the model and observations is most simply explained by statistically correlated surface and subsurface loads. Calculations of load distributions show that most of the elevation of the Western Shield can be represented as a locally compensated plateau with wavelengths greater than 1000 km; smaller‐amplitude, shorter‐wavelength relief appears almost entirely as surface loading. Approximately half of the topographic amplitude of the Southeastern Highlands is locally compensated, and both surface and subsurface loading contribute significantly to the regionally compensated topography. The low rigidity and subsurface loading in southeastern Australia are consistent with crustal underplating, igneous intrusion, and thermal perturbation of the upper mantle as mechanisms for the uplift and compensation of the highlands.

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The phanerozoic sedimentary basins of Australia and their tectonic implications

Cited by 22 publications

References 20 publications

Testing long‐term patterns of basin sedimentation by detrital zircon geochronology, Centralian Superbasin, Australia

Testing long‐term patterns of basin sedimentation by detrital zircon geochronology, Centralian Superbasin, Australia

Coal-Bearing Depositional Systems

Effective elastic thicknesses of the lithosphere and mechanisms of isostatic compensation in Australia

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