the biostratigraphy and magnetic polarity zonation of the pabbi hills northern pakistan an upper siwalik pinjor stage upper pliocene lower pleistocene fluvial sequence abstract the pabbi hills northern pakistan comprise an upper siwalik fluvial sequence spanning 3 2 0 5 ma the portion 2 2 0 9 ma encompasses most of the pinjor faunal stage ca 2 5 0 6 ma of india and was extensively sampled for vertebrate fossil remains with particular attention to recording spatial and vertical provenance detailed palaeomagnetic sampling confirms earlier investigations in the pabbi hills and allows fossil material to be grouped within time bands of 200 300 kyr over 40 000 vertebrate fossil specimens were found of which ca 10 were diagnostic to taxon and skeletal part the distribution of fossil material was non random and over half came from 20 localities we propose here a mammalian biostratigraphy for the upper pliocene to upper lower pleistocene 2 2 0 9 ma of northern pakistan that expands and revises earlier work the elephas hysudricus faunal interval zone ca 2 7 0 8 ma can be usefully divided into an earlier and a later component the earlier part prior to 1 7 ma includes taxa such as sivatherium canis cautleyi hyaenictis or lycyaena anthracotheres and hippopotamids all of which were probably regionally extinct by 1 4 ma taxa seen after but not before 1 4 ma include crocuta panthera an ursid and a herpestid these changes may indicate that dry season grasslands expanded at the expense of woodland habitats after the early pleistocene thereby reducing arboreal habitats and browsing opportunities

thermal modelling of very long lived 140 myr high thermal gradient metamorphism as a result of radiogenic heating in the reynolds range central australia abstract the reynolds range in the paleo mesoproterozoic aileron province of central australia exposes a differentially exhumed metamorphic rock system varying from greenschist to granulite facies calculated p t pseudosections indicate that peak metamorphic conditions in greenschist facies areas reached temperatures of 480 c and pressures of 3 2 5 kbar peak conditions at amphibolite facies are constrained to 500 620 c and 1 3 3 8 kbar p t modelling of two petrologically different granulite facies samples indicate that peak conditions in the exhumed granulite facies rocks reached 780 920 c and 3 5 5 4 kbar corresponding to high apparent thermal gradients of 152 218 c kbar in the amphibolite facies rocks in situ la icp ms u pb monazite geochronology records ages that range between 1680 and 1550 ma in contrast in the granulite facies rocks monazite records ages of ca 1560 ma the terrane contains significantly elevated rates of crustal heat production compared to global norms and when incorporated into lithospheric thermal models with reasonable boundary conditions and average thermal properties can plausibly account for the long lasting metamorphic conditions the thermal modelling shows that the long lasting 100 myr record of monazite u pb ages supported by previous studies reflects a continuous duration of elevated crustal temperatures an interpretation consistent with texturally simple mineral assemblages that lack any evidence for polymetamorphism in high crustal heat production terranes high thermal gradients and high temperatures will persist until exhumation removes the upper crust this physical reality provides a basis for the existence of arbitrarily long lived metamorphic systems even under high thermal gradients that are generally considered to be thermally anomalous however such thermal anomalism is not remarkable as there is abundant evidence for elevated rates of crustal heat production in the reynolds range and worldwide in terranes where accessory minerals record large continuous ranges of age robust volumetric measurements of crustal heat production rates are a necessary step in evaluating the potential thermal significance of such geochronological records failure to document rates of crustal heat generation invalidates many interpretations for drivers of metamorphism

geodynamics of the tarim basin and the tian shan in central asia the india asia collision has caused crustal thickening in tibet by at least a factor of 2 in the last 20 30 myr of this collision the tian shan mountain range has also been reactivated the tarim basin however shows little internal deformation we describe a series of numerical experiments which constrain the effective lithospheric strength parameters of the tarim basin and the tian shan in the context of a thin viscous sheet model we use a finite element representation of the thin viscous sheet model to approximate the deformation field in the india asia collision and compare model crustal thickness distributions with that inferred from a local isostatic model of topography the experiments show that a strong tarim basin while undergoing little internal deformation transfers strain to the tian shan producing significant crustal thickening in the tian shan region based only on diagnostic parameters such as the maximum thickening in the tian shan and the minimum in the tarim basin the principal features of the topography can be approximately reproduced using models in which either the tarim basin is strong or the tian shan is weak or both for a rheological model in which the stress versus strain rate exponent is n 3 the strength coefficient for the strong tarim basin model vtarim is between about 1 7 and 2 for the weak tian shan model the relative strength coefficient vtian is between about 0 65 and 0 75 if both strong tarim and weak tian shan are included there is a trade off between the required values of vtarim and vtian and the shape of the predicted crustal thickness profiles better matches the observed profiles the steep topographic slope on the southern margin of the tarim basin requires that it is anomalously strong while the rapid decrease of topographic height to the north of the tian shan requires that it is anomalously weak similar conclusions are obtained with a rheological model based on n 10 simplified rheological models of the lithosphere show that the variations in lithospheric strength may be explained by changes to the moho temperature of the order of 10 to 30 c

dehydration melting of tonalites part ii composition of melts and solids dehydration melting of tonalitic compositions phlogopite or biotite plagioclase quartz assemblages is investigated within a temperature range of 700 1000 c and pressure range of 2 15 kbar the solid reaction products in the case of the phlogopite plagioclase an45 quartz starting material are enstatite clinopyroxene and potassium feldspar with amphiboles occurring occasionally at 12 kbar zoisite is observed below 800 c and garnet at 900 c the reaction products of dehydration melting of the biotite ann50 plagioclase an45 quartz assemblage are melt orthopyroxene clinopyroxene amphibole and potassium feldspar at pressures 8 kbar and temperatures below 800 c epidote is also formed almandine rich garnet appears above 10 kbar at temperatures 750 c the composition of melts is granitic to granodioritic hence showing the importance of dehydration melting of tonalites for the formation of granitic melts and granulitic restites at pressure temperature conditions within the continental crust the melt compositions plot close to the cotectic line dividing the liquidus surfaces between quartz and potassium feldspar in the haplogranite system at 5 kbar and ah2o 1 the composition of the melts changes with the composition of the starting material temperature and pressure with increasing temperature the melt becomes enriched in al2o3 and feo mgo potash in the melt is highest just when biotite disappears the amount of cao decreases up to 900 c at 5 kbar whereas at higher temperatures it increases as amphibole clinopyroxene and more an component dissolve in the melt the na2o content of the melt increases slightly with increase in temperature the composition of the melt at temperatures 900 c approaches that of the starting assemblage the melt fraction varies with composition and proportion of hydrous phases in the starting composition as well as temperature and pressure with increasing modal biotite from 20 to 30 wt the melt proportion increases from 19 8 to 22 3 vol 850 c and 5 kbar with increasing temperature from 800 to 950 c at 5 kbar the increase in melt fraction is from 11 to 25 8 vol the effect of pressure on the melt fraction is observed to be relatively small and the melt proportion in the same assemblage decreases at 850 c from 19 8 vol at 5 kbar to 15 3 vol at 15 kbar selected experiments were reversed at 2 and 5 kbar to demonstrate that near equilibrium compositions were obtained in runs of longer duration

local to regional scale structural controls on mineralisation and the importance of a major lineament in the eastern mount isa inlier australia review and analysis with autocorrelation and weights of evidence although major crustal lineaments may play an important role in mineralisation the relationship between lineaments and mineral deposits can be quite cryptic and structural controls may vary as a function of scale along lineaments major lineaments alone may be of limited use for detailed target generation the cloncurry lineament in the eastern part of the mount isa inlier is a crustal scale structure defined by potential field derived worms weights of evidence quantifies the association between mineral occurrences and this lineament autocorrelation is used to recognise structural controls on mineralisation at different scales by progressively limiting the lengths of the vectors between mineral occurrence points in the autocorrelation plot the weights of evidence analysis shows that au au cu cu au and cu deposits have a positive spatial correlation to the cloncurry lineament which suggests it that acted as a primary crustal scale control on the localisation of cu and au through focussing mineralisation systems on a broad scale however autocorrelation defines a variety of local structural controls which can be interpreted as shear zones variably oriented fault sets en echelon fault arrays and potentially the orientation of bedding and or iron formations which localise fluid flow and mineral deposition at finer scales the results suggest that major lineaments defined by geophysical contrasts can be used in conjunction with techniques of spatial analysis for targeting structurally controlled mineralisation in areas under thin cover adjacent to mineralised terrains such as the mt isa inlier

conjectures on the thermal and tectonic evolution of the earth abstract the tectonic modes operating at any given time in the earth are intimately related to the thermal evolution since tectonics is driven by heat removal from the earth s interior conversely the viability of a proposed tectonic mode depends on its ability to remove heat from the interior as well as on its inferred consistency with geological evidence on this basis it seems that plate tectonics may have been dominant only in the later part of earth history and that proposed earlier modes involving only a subcrustal thermal boundary layer may never have been dominant unless the effects of the basalt eclogite transition or of latent heat removal were able to enhance their heat transport efficiency more generally the tectonic mode driven by the cool thermal boundary layer at the top of the mantle may have depended very sensitively on the effects of composition and latent heat on density calculations indicate that plumes could have operated through most of earth history at about the present level of activity unless heat conduction from the core into the mantle has been inhibited in later times in which case they would have been hotter and more active in earlier times plumes could not have substituted for plate tectonics because plumes and plates are driven by different thermal boundary layers that operate largely independently

high and low k granites and adakites at a palaeoproterozoic plate boundary in northwestern australia the lamboo complex is one of several palaeoproterozoic terrains in northern australia that is intruded by high k i type granites the oldest granites in the complex consist of the high k 1865 1850 ma paperbark supersuite with initial e nd values between 2 7 and 4 0 tonalite sheets of the c 1850 ma dougalls suite have high al 2 o 3 na 2 o sr sr y and la yb and low y and hree and initial e nd values between 1 4 and 0 7 the rocks have compositions similar to adakites that form by melting of mafic rocks in the deep crust with garnet in the residue granites of the 1835 1805 ma sally downs supersuite range from high k types through to crustally derived adakites all with initial e nd values between 0 1 and 1 2 the two supersuites and the dougalls suite were intruded into different tectonic settings previously all of the granites in the lamboo complex were interpreted as partial melts of a chemically and isotopically uniform underplate beneath a rifted archaean craton however their spatial and temporal distribution and their varied compositions are best explained by large scale horizontal plate motions and subduction of oceanic crust

tectonic evolution in the archaean and proterozoic kre high heat flow probably favoured global hotspot activity with crustal growth of iceland type through vertical magmatic accretion the tectonic environment for the generation of about 3 9 2 5 ga granite gneiss greenstone terrains with volurnlnous production of tonalite trondhjemite granodlorite magmas is still uncertain and both piate ma and intrapiate scenarios arc possible deformanon atylea in greenstones and adjacent high grade orthognersses with intercalated shallow water supracrustal assemblages suggest extensive horizontal shortening and crustal interstacking this probably resulted from collisional and or rotational motion and produced significant intracrustal melting as early as 3 9 ga by the end of the archaean and locally much earlier crustal thicknesses reached 35 50 km or more and the cxtl aordinary hhlding to erogenic deformation may have been due to delamination and crustal subduction towards the end of the proterozoic evidence for modern style plate tectonics becomes abundant through the recognition of laland a16 accretion ophiolite obducdon foreland thrust and fold belts and exotic terranes one of the best documented example for this tectonic environment is the arabian nubian shield 4lthough it is doubtful whether modern plate tectonic settings can serve as analogues for all precambrian tectonic styles it i clear that global crustal evolution since the early archaean was governed by the motion of plates which repeatedly came togethel tv fotm supercontinents and then dlspersetl again we shall not understand the detailed mechanism of precambrian crustal itlton cs before we learn horn lo irltejpret recent large scale crustal deformation and its causes

rapid cooling and exhumation in the western part of the mesoproterozoic albany fraser orogen western australia abstract the albany fraser orogen of southwestern australia is an understudied orogenic belt which is interpreted to record the mesoproterozoic suturing of the yilgarn craton of western australia to the mawson craton of east antarctica during rodinia assembly previous u pb geochronology has dated peak amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism in the orogen at ca 1180 ma here we report the first 40ar 39ar thermochronology of hornblende biotite and muscovite grains from a 360 km transect across the western albany fraser orogen and uncover a record of strikingly fast syn orogenic cooling and exhumation to the north muscovites from the northern foreland record cooling at ca 1159 ma in the central and southern domains of the orogen the biranup and nornalup zones hornblende yields ca 1169 ma cooling ages and biotite yields ca 1172 1144 ma cooling ages the new cooling ages imply that the three domains were exhumed rapidly following peak metamorphism at ca 1180 ma attained a similar structural level by ca 1159 ma and have experienced a uniform exhumation history since that time to constrain mineral closure temperatures and post peak metamorphic cooling rates we conducted a monte carlo simulation which fully propagates uncertainty and minimises error correlations modelling of cooling from hornblende to biotite closure temperatures ca 585 c and 365 c respectively in the nornalup and biranup zones yields fast cooling rates of 33 9 17 c ma and 22 5 7 c ma respectively these fast cooling rates imply rapid exhumation in an active tectonic setting undergoing peak metamorphism although the structural evolution of the albany fraser orogen remains poorly constrained the transpressional tectonic activity associated with deformation in the western part of the albany fraser orogen may have been an active driver of this fast exhumation this is distinctly different from exhumation models for granulite facies domains in other mesoproterozoic orogens which typically experience post orogenic slow 1 5 c ma cooling driven by mechanisms such as orogenic collapse and erosion we consider that the observed differences reflect the interpreted syn tectonic transpressional exhumation history of the albany fraser orogen which is an underrepresented tectonic regime in the mesoproterozoic cooling record

contrasting styles of proterozoic crustal evolution a hot plate tectonic model for australian terranes proterozoic terranes in australia record complex tectonic histories in the interval 1900 1400 ma that have previously been interpreted by means of simple intracratonic or plate tectonic models however these models do not fully account for 1 repeated tectonic reactivation both orogenesis and rifting 2 mainly high temperature low pressure metamorphism 3 rifting and sag creating thick sedimentary basins 4 the nature and timing of voluminous felsic magmatism 5 relatively large aspect ratio orogenic belts and 6 a general paucity of diagnostic plate boundary features a key to understanding these histories is the observation that australian proterozoic terranes are characterized by an extraordinary but heterogeneous enrichment of the heat producing elements this enrichment must contribute to long term lithospheric weakening and thus we advocate a hybrid lithospheric evolution model with two tectonic switches plate boundary derived stresses and heat producing element related lithospheric weakening the australian proterozoic crustal growth record is therefore a function of the magnitude of these stresses the way in which the heat producing elements are distributed and how both of these change with time

geochemical and nd isotopic systematics of granites from the arunta inlier central australia implications for proterozoic crustal evolution geochemical and sm nd isotopic results are reported for granites from the proterozoic arunta inlier of central australia these combined with new geochronological data for the granites zhao and bennett 1995 allow important constraints to be placed on proterozoic tectonic and crustal evolution in central australia granites from the arunta inlier can be divided into three major geochemical groups a calcalkaline trondhjemitic group cat a high heat production group hhp and a volumetrically significant main group the cat group which occurs only in the southern margin of the inlier is characterised by high na2o nak sr krb and sry and relatively low k2o rb rbsr th u ree nb and y analogous to calc alkaline suites occurring in modern convergent plate margins the hhp group which occurs mainly in the interior of the arunta inlier and is spatially associated with the main group is characterised by high k rb th u rbsr and rbzr and relatively low sr ba nak krb barb mgo cr and ni the main group which occurs throughout the arunta inlier is geochemically intermediate between the cat and hhp groups it is geochemically analogous to the 1880 1850 ma old barramundi igneous association recognised in other proterozoic terrains of central australia and can be further subdivided into four age subgroups 1820 1780 1750 1650 and 1615 1600 ma respectively all three groups show similar negative nb anomalies on the trace element normalized diagrams despite the geochemical diversity of the arunta granites no correlations between the nd isotopic and geochemical signatures are observed the ranges of initial nd values and nd depleted mantle model ages tnddm for the three groups of granites overlap with each other overall there are two groups of tnddm ages the most common ranging from 2 33 to 1 96 ga and the other from 1 83 to 1 72 ga although initial nd values of the granites show large variations there is a general trend for the nd values to increase i e become less negative with decreasing crystallization ages the large geochemical and isotopic variations of the arunta granites reflect considerable heterogeneity in the sources of the granites and do not support a uniform 2 3 2 1 ga old barramundi type underplate source for the origin of the granites the combined geochemical and nd isotopic data suggest the sources of the granites contain at least two main components an palaeoproterozoic mantle derived component and an older crustal component the older crustal component was incorporated into the source region of the granites either through magma assimilation of crustal materials at lower crustal levels or more probably via sediment subduction and mantle wedge metasomatism the increasing nd values with decreasing crystallization ages may be a result of progressively increasing proportions of newly accreted island arc materials being incorporated in the subducted sediments alternatively a juvenile mantle derived component may have been added to the source region of the younger granites it is apparent that the nd isotopic signatures in the granites has resulted from complex processes and neither simple mixing nor simple two stage protolith models can as yet satisfactorily explain the observations the petrogenesis of the three geochemical groups of granites can be interpreted in a plate tectonics scenario it is considered that the cat group was formed by fractionation of arc type magmas and or partial melting of arc related intrusions or underplates in a subduction related continental margin setting whilst the formation of the main group may involve partial melting of fractionated and or modified arc related underplates but not necessarily in a subduction environment the younger hhp group was probably generated by remelting of the coexisting main group during subsequent tectonothermal events

tectonic evolution of proterozoic australia proterozoic australia has long been interpreted as a single intact continent in which all tectonic and magmatic activity was intracratonic this paper proposes an alternative hypothesis in which numerous fragments of continental crust were assembled by plate tectonic processes the assembly was completed between 1300 and 1100 ma when the crustal fragments were combined as an early component of the rodinian supercontinent rifting and fragmentation of archaean continents began in the late archaean and continued into the proterozoic passive margin deposits such as those of the hamersley basin accumulated on isolated fragments of archaean crust these numerous fragments were subsequently assembled into three cratons by 1830 ma a west australian craton was established by collision of the archaean pilbara and yilgarn cratons which were joined along the capricorn orogen similarly a south australian craton developed by amalgamation of the proto gawler and proto curnamona cratons along the kimban orogen a north australian craton appears to have formed by accretion of numerous crustal fragments including the kimberley pine creek lucas and altjawarra cratons with sutures marked by the king leopold halls creek tennant creek and proto isan orogens the southern margin of the north australian craton was the site of repeated terrane accretion and orogenic activity between 1880 ma and 1400 ma this included an orogenic event at 1880 1850 ma the strangways 1780 1730 ma argilke 1680 1650 ma and chewings 1620 1580 ma orogenies and the intracratonic anmatjira uplift 1500 1400 ma intracratonic rifting at 1750 to 1710 ma and 1640 to 1600 ma produced the mcarthur basin and related minor basins parts of which were deformed by the isan orogeny at 1600 and 1530 ma rifting along the line of the capricorn orogen led to deposition in the overlying intracratonic bangemall basin between 1630 and 1300 ma along the eastern margin of the south australian craton the 1670 to 1600 ma olarian orogeny marks interaction with now obscured continental crust to the east tectonic activity between 1300 and 1100 ma led to the assembly of proterozoic australia as an early component of the supercontinent of rodinia this first involved the amalgamation of the west australian and north australian cratons followed by collision with the south australian craton the centralian superbasin developed over the junction of the north south and west australian cratons between 830 and 750 ma rifting to the east formed the adelaide geosyncline at 830 ma this was followed by the breakup of rodinia with the rifting apart of laurentia and gondwanaland along the eastern margin of proterozoic australia at 750 ma and the subsequent formation of the palaeo pacific ocean after the breakup of rodinia a series of northeast southwest compressional events followed by periods of relaxation reflect the assembly of a new supercontinent old lines of weakness were reactivated culminating in the intracratonic king leopold paterson petermann ranges and pinjarra orogenies between 620 and 540 ma subsequent reactivation continued into the phanerozoic with the widespread eruption of continental flood basalts and the formation of intracratonic basins 540 530 ma

an extended episode of early mesoproterozoic metamorphic fluid flow in the reynolds range central australia the products of metamorphic fluid flow are preserved in zones within the marbles and metamorphosed semipelites of the upper calcsilicate unit in the granulite portion of the late palaeoproterozoic reynolds range group northern arunta block central australia the zones of retrogression characterized by minerals such as wollastonite grossular and clinohumite local resetting of oxygen isotopic compositions and local major element metasomatism were channelways for water rich fluids derived from granulite facies metapelites u th pb isotopic ages measured by the shrimp ion microprobe on zircon and monazite from a granulite facies semipelite an early semiconcordant aluminous quartz rich fluid flow segregation and a late discordant quartz rich segregation record some of the extended thermal history of the area zircon cores from the semipelite show its likely protolith to be an igneous rock 1812 11 ma old itself derived from a source containing zircon as old as 2 2 ga low th u overgrowths on the zircon grew during granulite facies metamorphism at 1594 6 ma monazite cooled to its blocking temperature at 1576 8 ma zircon cores from the semiconcordant segregation are dominantly 2 3 ga old indicating that the source of the fluids was not the particular metamorphosed semipelite studied two generations of low th u overgrowths on the zircon give indistinguishable ages for the older and younger of 1589 8 and 1582 8 ma respectively the monazite age is the same 1576 12 ma zircon from the late discordant segregation gave 1568 4 ma fluid flow occurred for at least 18 3 ma and ended 26 3 ma after the peak of metamorphism suggesting a very slow cooling rate of 3 c ma 1 the last regional high grade metamorphism in the reynolds range occurred at 1 6 ga not 1 78 ga as previously thought the high grade event at 1 78 ga is a separate event that affected only the basement to the reynolds range group

an isotopic perspective on growth and differentiation of proterozoic orogenic crust from subduction magmatism to cratonization abstract the in situ chemical differentiation of continental crust ultimately leads to the long term stability of the continents this process more commonly known as cratonization is driven by deep crustal melting with the transfer of those melts to shallower regions resulting in a strongly chemically stratified crust with a refractory dehydrated lower portion overlain by a complementary enriched upper portion since the lower to mid portions of continental crust are rarely exposed investigation of the cratonization process must be through indirect methods in this study we use in situ hf and o isotope compositions of both magmatic and inherited zircons from several felsic magmatic suites in the capricorn orogen of western australia to highlight the differentiation history i e cratonization of this portion of late archean to proterozoic orogenic crust the capricorn orogen shows a distinct tectonomagmatic history that evolves from an active continental margin through to intracratonic reworking ultimately leading to thermally stable crust that responds similarly to the bounding archean pilbara and yilgarn cratons the majority of magmatic zircons from the main magmatic cycles have hf isotopic compositions that are generally more evolved than chur forming vertical arrays that extend to moderately radiogenic compositions complimentary o isotope data also show a significant variation in composition however combined these data define not only the source components from which the magmas were derived but also a range of physio chemical processes that operated during magma transport and emplacement these data also identify a previously unknown crustal reservoir in the capricorn orogen

contrasted tectonic styles for the paleoproterozoic evolution of the north china craton evidence for a 2 1 ga thermal and tectonic event in the fuping massif structural analysis along with 40ar 39ar and u pb datings in the fuping massif provide new insight into the evolution of the eastern part of the trans north china belt north china craton from 2 7 ga to 1 8 ga d1 is responsible for the development of a dome and basin structure coeval with crustal melting giving rise to migmatite and nanying gneissic granites at 2 1 ga this dome and basin architecture resulted from the interference between a n s compression of a weak ductile crust and gravity driven vertical flow in a high thermal regime the next events involved flat lying ductile thrusting d2 and normal faulting d3 dated at around 1880 ma and 1830 ma respectively the d2 and d3 events belong to the trans north china orogeny that results in the final amalgamation of the north china craton the d1 deformation is considered as evidence for an earlier orogen developed around 2 1 ga prior to the trans north china orogeny the change in the deformation style between the 2 1 ga and 1 8 ga could be viewed as a consequence of the cooling of the continental crust in the north china craton

metamorphic response and crustal architecture in a classic collisional orogen the damara belt namibia abstract the damara belt is a well exposed mid crustal section through a collisional orogen of cambrian age that closed the khomas ocean basin between passive margins on the congo and kalahari cratons collision resulted in a bi vergent orogen with a distinct paired metamorphic pattern of foreland vergent high p low t orogenic margins and a broad high grade low p high t orogen core spatial and temporal patterns of the metamorphic response to collision have been characterized for all parts of the belt using a large dataset n 240 of internally consistent quantitative pt determinations evolution of mineral parageneses and semi quantitative p t paths metamorphic mapping and quantitative metamorphic field gradients integration with deformation history structural profiles metamorphic chronology magmatic history and stratigraphy constrains a dynamic model of crustal architecture during peak metamorphic events the pattern of zonal metamorphic response is demarcated by three major metamorphic discontinuities md with steep pressure gradients inferring crustal scale structures that accommodated lateral exhumation of crustal wedges discontinuities are confirmed by deformation features in the field and metamorphic mineral growth indicates that vertical flattening at the peak of metamorphism progressing through ductile to brittle extensional structures crustal wedges along the orogenic margins experienced steep clockwise p t paths with peak pt conditions terminated by isothermal decompression during rapid exhumation in isostatic response to deep burial metamorphic chronology and over printing metamorphic fabrics constrain a sequence of foreland propagating out wedging of crustal thrust wedges that resulted in telescoping of the orogenic margins peak metamorphism at a geothermal gradient of 20 25 c km and 8 9 kb in the southern zone wedge i was attained between 517 530 ma followed by south directed out wedging at the uis pass suture accommodated by relative extension md1 at high structural levels near the boundary with the high grade orogen core out wedging of the southern zone further buried the southern margin zone wedge ii in the footwall below the uis pass suture peak metamorphism at 17 c km and 9 5 11 5 kb in the southern margin zone was attained at 517 4 ma and followed by out wedging on basal thrusts accommodated by vertical flattening and extensional reactivation of the uis pass suture md2 peak metamorphism at 17 c km and 10 5 kb in a high p low t crustal wedge in the northern margin wedge iii occurred at 510 4 ma peak metamorphism in this wedge was terminated by isothermal decompression during north directed thrusting accommodated by extension at higher structural levels near the high grade orogen core md3 granulite facies metamorphism in the high grade orogen core which formed the upper plate to the deeper thrust wedges occurred at significantly lower pressures 4 3 6 0 kb higher t depth ratios 38 47 c km and low p t clockwise p t paths indicating only moderate burial and protracted high grade conditions metamorphic chronology confirms high grade conditions 540 505 ma persisted beyond isostatic adjustment of the high p low t orogenic margins high heat flow conditions and long thermal lag are best explained by lithospheric breakoff during collision in contrast to the high p low t margins that experienced lateral exhumation in a convergent system the high grade orogen core was exhumed vertically as a broad core complex during extensional collapse of the orogen peak metamorphic conditions in the central part of the orogen core record higher pressures than marginal lower grade zones to both the north and south indicating vertical exhumation as a broad massif this post peak vertical exhumation of the central core occurred after 505 ma was accommodated by brittle extensional detachments at high stratigraphic levels with km scale omission of crustal section

the mesoproterozoic thermal evolution of the musgrave province in central australia plume vs the geological record abstract the 1090 to 2 of western and central australia it also included one of the most voluminous additions of juvenile felsic material to earth s crust with the development of one of the world s longest lived rhyolitic centres including the talbot supervolcano previous suggestions that the event was the result of a deep mantle plume cannot adequately account for the 50 m y duration of mantle derived magmatism or the fact that isolated localities such as the talbot sub basin preserve the entire magmatic record with no discernible regional age progressive spatial trend for at least 100 m y before the giles event the musgrave region experienced high to ultra high crustal temperatures possibly as an ultra hot orogen born from a c 1300 ma back arc granitic magmatism prior to the giles event also involved a significant mantle derived component and was accompanied by mid crustal ultra high temperature 1000 c metamorphism reflecting a thin and weak lithosphere this magmatism also resulted in a mid crustal 25 km deep layer greatly enriched in radiogenic heat producing elements that strongly augmented the already extreme crustal geotherms over a prolonged period the giles event may have been triggered when this regional musgrave thermal anomaly was displaced and again significantly destabilised along the mundrabilla shear zone a continent scale structure that juxtaposed the musgrave province against the easterly extension of the capricorn orogen where pre existing orogen scale structures were in extension these orogen scale structures funnelled the magmas that produced the warakurna large igneous province and the intersection of the musgrave thermal anomaly and the mundrabilla shear zone was the site of the talbot supervolcano although previously thought to be a result of a deep mantle plume the giles event was more likely the product of intra plate tectonic processes involving an anomalous and prolonged thermal pre history a magma focussing lithospheric architecture and large scale tectonic movements

controls on low pressure anatexis low pressure anatexis whereby rocks melt in place after passing through the andalusite stability field develops under more restricted conditions than does low pressure metamorphism our thermal modelling and review of published work indicate that the following mechanisms operating alone may induce anatexis in typical pelitic rocks without inducing wholesale melting in the lower crust i magmatic advection by pervasive flow ii crustal scale detachment faulting and iii the presence of a high heat producing layer of these only magmatic advection by pervasive flow and crustal scale detachment faulting have been shown quantitatively to provide sufficient heat to cause widespread melting combinations of the above mechanisms with pluton scale magmatic advection shear heating removal of the lithospheric mantle or with each other provide additional means of developing suitable high temperatures at shallow crustal levels to generate low pressure anatexis

the role of radiogenic heat in prolonged intraplate reworking the capricorn orogen explained links between intraplate crustal deformation and the thermal regime of the lithosphere have been investigated using numerical models but these conceptual models must be tested using well constrained natural systems the proterozoic capricorn orogen of western australia is ideally suited for such a study after arc accretion it records a protracted history of intracrustal differentiation and over one billion years of subsequent tectonic reworking the early addition of juvenile arc material initially reduced the heat production of the crust whereas subsequent recycling of the deep crust ultimately produced radiogenic granites in the shallow crust using whole rock and magmatic zircon compositions we show that the shallow crust of the capricorn orogen has been progressively enriched in heat producing elements with time the high heat production is mainly controlled by thorium concentrated in lree enriched phosphates that grew during the late stages of crystallization of crustally derived granites using a numerical model we investigate the thermal effects of this evolved crustal stratification and compare them with quantitative data on the pressure temperature time evolution of a non magmatic mesoproterozoic reworking event the results provide new information concerning the process by which the thermal conditions necessary for the reworking of orogenic crust are generated and sustained for prolonged timescales 110 ma furthermore we demonstrate that perturbations to the radiogenic crust lead to warmer geotherms and consequent lithospheric weakening which has a fundamental control on intraplate reworking of long lived orogens

the burning heart the proterozoic geology and geological evolution of the west musgrave region central australia the musgrave province is one of the most geodynamically significant of australia s proterozoic orogenic belts lying at the intersection of the continent s three cratonic elements the west north and south australian cratons while remoteness and cultural sensitivity have slowed geological research into this region recent collaborative programs in western australia the west musgrave province have done much to address this this focus review provides a synthesis of this and previous work investigating the mesoproterozoic to neoproterozoic geological evolution of the province the musgrave province is a mesoproterozoic to neoproterozoic belt dominated by granites formed and deformed during several major events a cryptic juvenile basement is exposed mainly in the east musgrave province as c 1600 1550 ma orthogneiss and in the west musgrave province as isolated outcrops of granulite facies metagranites of the c 1575 ma warlawurru supersuite zircon hf isotopic data suggest an earlier major juvenile crust forming event at c 1950 1900 ma there is however no evidence that the province evolved over archean crust the c 1600 1550 ma period probably involved evolution within a primitive arc setting perhaps developed on c 1950 1900 ma oceanic or oceanic arc crust voluminous calc alkaline plutonism was accompanied by clastic and volcaniclastic basin formation during the 1345 1293 ma mount west orogeny this stage traced the evolution of a continental arc reflecting the final amalgamation of the combined north and west australian craton with the south australian craton the intervening c 1400 ma primitive crust the madura province on which the proto musgrave province had evolved was consumed during amalgamation the thickened crust resulting from this accretion was drastically thinned at the beginning of the c 1220 1150 ma musgrave orogeny as this central part of the new combined craton entered an extraordinary period of high heat flow characterised by c 100 m y of ultrahigh temperature metamorphism and high temperature anhydrous alkali calcic magmatism sourced from mash chambers developed at the base of the thinned crust the ridged cratonic architecture and a massive accumulation of high radiogenic heat producing granites within the mid crust perpetuated a thin crustal regime voluminous magmatism was again triggered during the c 1090 1040 ma giles event with the evolution of the magmatism dominated ngaanyatjarra rift this event was likely initiated through renewed movement along translithospheric faults that intersected the thermally perturbed musgrave province pinned at a cratonic junction mantle derived bimodal magmatism extended more or less continuously for 50 m y producing one of the world s largest layered mafic intrusions and supervolcano sized additions of juvenile felsic crust in the form of alkali calcic to alkali a type rhyolite deposits together the albany fraser orogen which developed over the southern margin of the west australian craton and the musgrave province mark the preserved edge of the north and west australian craton these two belts show remarkable chronological links between c 1345 and 1150 ma but contrasting histories before and after that period their period of shared evolution reflects collision and accretion of the south australian craton but their tectonic setting and basement geology throughout that event were very different