The relationship of structures across the Lambian unconformity near Taralga,New South Wales

The structures across the Lambian Unconformity near Taralga show evidence of two, and possibly three, significant episodes of folding. The first, Early to Middle Silurian folding is poorly defined, but may be responsible for initial dips that are reflected in the more complex deformation patterns in the Late Ordovician than in the overlying younger rocks. The second, mid‐Devonian folding produced upright folds trending 10° west of north, and the last, latest Devonian to Early Carboniferous folding produced the meridional Cookbundoon Synclinorium and the regional cleavage. No cleavage was associated with the first two episodes of folding in the area studied. The angular discordance across the Lambian Unconformity caused by mid‐Devonian folding is much greater than in the northeastern Lachlan Fold Belt, and reflects the increasing intensity of mid‐Devonian folding southward. The tight, slightly overturned profile of the Cookbundoon Synclinorium reflects an intensity of latest Devonian to Early Carboniferous folding similar to that found in the northeastern Lachlan Fold Belt, but the intensity of this folding decreases further south.     

Age of the peel sandstone group,isle of man

An Early Devonian age for the continental, red‐bed succession of the Peel Sandstone Group can be defined on the basis of: (1) a derived marine fauna of late Wenlock (Homerian) age, (2) a Scoyenia ichnofacies assemblage (including Beaconites and Diplichnites) characteristic of latest Silurian to Early Devonian (Lower Old Red Sandstone magnafacies) sediments in the British Isles, (3) a microflora of late Lochkovian to Pragian age, (4) a detrital palaeomagnetic remanence that pre‐dates local, Acadian palaeomagnetic directions and coincides with a prominent, southerly, Late Silurian to Early Devonian excursion in the local apparent polar wander path, and (5) a mid‐Devonian palaeomagnetic remanence that overprints (?)Acadian, thrust‐related folding. Data presented in this study confirm previous suggestions (Allen and Crowley 1983) that the Peel Sandstone Group represents a rare example of Early Devonian sedimentation preserved on the northern margin of the former Eastern Avalonia microcontinent. Potential correlations and linkages with other Lower Old Red Sandstone successions exposed in the Anglo‐Welsh Basin are developed and discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Palaeozoic synorogenic sedimentation in central and northern Australia: A review of distribution and timing with implications for the evolution of intracontinental orogens

The Palaeozoic Alice Springs Orogeny was a major intraplate tectonic event in central and northern Australia. The sedimentological, structural and isotopic effects of the Alice Springs Orogeny have been well documented in the northern Amadeus Basin and adjacent exhumed Arunta Inlier, although the full regional extent of the event, as well as lateral variations in timing and intensity are less well known. Because of the lack of regional isotopic data, we take a sedimentological approach towards constraining these parameters, compiling the location and age constraints of inferred synorogenic sedimentation across a number of central and northern Australian basins. Such deposits are recorded from the Amadeus, Ngalia, Georgina, Wiso, eastern Officer and, possibly, Warburton Basins. Deposits are commonly located adjacent to areas of significant basement uplift related to north‐south shortening. In addition, similar aged orogenic deposits occur in association with strike‐slip tectonism in the Ord and southern Bonaparte Basins of northwest Australia. From a combination of sedimentological and isotopic evidence it appears that localised convergent deformation started in the Late Ordovician in the eastern Arunta Inlier and adjacent Amadeus Basin. Synorogenic style sedimentation becomes synchronously widespread in the late Early Devonian and in most areas the record terminates abruptly close to the end of the Devonian. A notable exception is the Ngalia Basin in which such sedimentation continued until the mid‐Carboniferous. In the Ord and Bonaparte Basins there is evidence of two discrete pulses of transcurrent activity in the Late Devonian and Carboniferous. The sedimentological story contrasts with the isotopic record from the southern Arunta Inlier, which has generally been interpreted in terms of continuous convergent orogenic activity spanning most of the Devonian and Carboniferous, with a suggestion that rates of deformation increased in the mid‐Carboniferous. Either Carboniferous sediments have been stripped off by subsequent erosion, or sedimentation outpaced accommodation space and detritus was transported elsewhere.     

Mid to late Paleozoic shortening pulses in the Lachlan Orogen,southeastern Australia: a review

In the late Silurian, the Lachlan Orogen of southeastern Australia had a varied paleogeography with deep-marine, shallow-marine, subaerial environments and widespread igneous activity reflecting an extensional backarc setting. This changed to a compressional–extensional regime in the Devonian associated with episodic compressional events, including the Bindian, Tabberabberan and Kanimblan orogenies. The Early Devonian Bindian Orogeny was associated with SSE transport of the Wagga–Omeo Zone that was synchronous with thick sedimentation in the Cobar and Darling basins in central and western New South Wales. Shortening has been controlled by the margins of the Wagga–Omeo Zone with partitioning along strike-slip faults, such as along the Gilmore Fault, and inversion of pre-existing extensional basins including the Limestone Creek Graben and the Canbelego–Mineral Hill Volcanic Belt. Shortening was more widespread in the late Early Devonian to Middle Devonian Tabberabberan Orogeny, with major deformation in the Melbourne Zone, Cobar Basin and eastern Lachlan Orogen. In the eastern Melbourne Zone, structural trends have been controlled by the pre-existing structural grain in the adjacent Tabberabbera Zone. Elsewhere Tabberabberan deformation involved inversion of pre-existing rifts resulting in a variation in structural trends. In the Early Carboniferous, the Lachlan Orogen was in a compressional backarc setting west of the New England continental margin arc with Kanimblan deformation most evident in Upper Devonian units in the eastern Lachlan Orogen. Kanimblan structures include major thrusts and associated fault-propagation folds indicated by footwall synclines with a steeply dipping to overturned limb adjacent to the fault. Ongoing deformation and sedimentation have been documented in the Mt Howitt Province of eastern Victoria. Overall, structural trends reflect a combination of controls provided by reactivation of pre-existing contractional and extensional structures in dominantly E–W shortening operating intermittently from the earliest Devonian to Early Carboniferous.     

Advances in the research on Carboniferous deep‐water marine deposits in western Junggar,northwestern China

Carboniferous deep‐water marine strata have been insufficiently studied in western Junggar, NW China where the deep‐water facies successions have long been disputed in terms of age constraints, sequence and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. This paper introduces some views in the light of new materials obtained from this region in recent years. The presence of the Visean plant fossils from the upper Ta'erbahatai Formation in the Tarbgatay Mountains indicates that the formation can be extended to the Early Carboniferous epoch in age. This unit also displays obvious diachroneity, which is of Late Devonian to Early Tournaisian age in the Saur Mountains and Late Devonian to Visean age in the Tarbgatay Mountains. The Xibeikulasi, Baogutu and Tailegula formations are widely distributed in northwestern Karamay areas. The scouring structures and graded bedding near the boundaries between the three formations confirm the stratal sequence that they were originally assigned, namely the Xibeikulasi, Baogutu and Tailegula formations in ascending order. The ‘fossil chaos’ of the three formations is due to mistaking fossils of other stratigraphic units for fossils of these three formations. After revision, only the Early Carboniferous fossils are considered reliable, and combined with the newly found plant fossils, the Xibeikulasi, Baogutu and Tailegula formations are re‐assigned to the early Visean, late Visean, and latest Visean to Serpukhovian ages, respectively. An extension of the lower Hala'alate Formation was recognized in the southwestern Hala'alate Mountains. The presence of the latest Early Carboniferous brachiopods constrains the Hala'alate Formation as late Serpukhovian to Bashkirian in age, bearing the mid‐Carboniferous boundary. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tectonic zoning of Wrangel Island,Arctic region

The Northern, Central, and Southern zones are distinguished by stratigraphic, lithologic, and structural features. The Northern Zone is characterized by Upper Silurian–Lower Devonian sedimentary rocks, which are not known in other zones. They have been deformed into near-meridional folds, which formed under settings of near-latitudinal shortening during the Ellesmere phase of deformation. In the Central Zone, mafic and felsic volcanic rocks that had been earlier referred to Carboniferous are actually Neoproterozoic and probably Early Cambrian in age. Together with folded Devonian–Lower Carboniferous rocks, they make up basement of the Central Zone, which is overlain with a angular unconformity by slightly deformed Lower (?) and Middle Carboniferous–Permian rocks. The Southern Zone comprises the Neoproterozoic metamorphic basement and the Devonian–Triassic sedimentary cover. North-vergent fold–thrust structures were formed at the end of the Early Cretaceous during the Chukchi (Late Kimmerian) deformation phase.     

Geochronological constraints on Caledonian strike–slip displacement in Svalbard,with implications for the evolution of the Arctic

The timing of Svalbard's assembly in relation to the mid‐Paleozoic Caledonian collision between Baltica and Laurentia remains contentious. The Svalbard archipelago consists of three basement provinces bounded by N–S‐trending strike–slip faults whose displacement histories are poorly understood. Here, we report microstructural and mineral chemistry data integrated with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar muscovite geochronology from the sinistral Vimsodden‐Kosibapasset Shear Zone (VKSZ, southwest Svalbard) and explore its relationship to adjacent structures and regional deformation within the circum‐Arctic. Our results indicate that strike–slip displacement along the VKSZ occurred in late Silurian–Early Devonian and was contemporaneous with the beginning of the main phase of continental collision in Greenland and Scandinavia and the onset of syn‐orogenic sedimentation in Silurian–Devonian fault‐controlled basins in northern Svalbard. These new‐age constraints highlight possible links between escape tectonics in the Caledonian orogen and mid‐Paleozoic terrane transfer across the northern margin of Laurentia.     

The Berridale Wrench fault: A major structure in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales

One of the most significant, but poorly understood, tectonic events in the east Lachlan Fold Belt is that which caused the shift from mafic, mantle‐derived calc‐alkaline/shoshonitic volcanism in the Late Ordovician to silicic (S‐type) plutonism and volcanism in the late Early Silurian. We suggest that this chemical/isotopic shift required major changes in crustal architecture, but not tectonic setting, and simply involved ongoing subduction‐related magmatism following burial of the pre‐existing, active intraoceanic arc by overthrusting Ordovician sediments during Late Ordovician — Early Silurian (pre‐Benambran) deformation, associated with regional northeast‐southwest shortening. A review of ‘type’ Benambran deformation from the type area (central Lachlan Fold Belt) shows that it is constrained to a north‐northwest‐trending belt at ca 430 Ma (late Early Silurian), associated with high‐grade metamorphism and S‐type granite generation. Similar features were associated with ca 430 Ma deformation in east Lachlan Fold Belt, highlighted by the Cooma Complex, and formed within a separate north‐trending belt that included the S‐type Kosciuszko, Murrumbidgee, Young and Wyangala Batholiths. As Ordovician turbidites were partially melted at ca 430 Ma, they must have been buried already to ～20 km before the ‘type’ Benambran deformation. We suggest that this burial occurred during earlier northeast‐southwest shortening associated with regional oblique folds and thrusts, loosely referred to previously as latitudinal or east‐west structures. This event also caused the earliest Silurian uplift in the central Lachlan Fold Belt (Benambran highlands), which pre‐dated the ‘type’ Benambran deformation and is constrained as latest Ordovician — earliest Silurian (ca 450–440 Ma) in age. The south‐ to southwest‐verging, earliest Silurian folds and thrusts in the Tabberabbera Zone are considered to be associated with these early oblique structures, although similar deformation in that zone probably continued into the Devonian. We term these ‘pre’‐ and ‘type’‐Benambran events as ‘early’ and ‘late’ for historical reasons, although we do not consider that they are necessarily related. Heat‐flow modelling suggests that burial of ‘average’ Ordovician turbidites during early Benambran deformation at 450–440 Ma, to form a 30 km‐thick crustal pile, cannot provide sufficient heat to induce mid‐crustal melting at ca 430 Ma by internal heat generation alone. An external, mantle heat source is required, best illustrated by the mafic ca 430 Ma, Micalong Swamp Igneous Complex in the S‐type Young Batholith. Modern heat‐flow constraints also indicate that the lower crust cannot be felsic and, along with petrological evidence, appears to preclude older continental ‘basement terranes’ as sources for the S‐type granites. Restriction of the S‐type batholiths into two discrete, oblique, linear belts in the central and east Lachlan Fold Belt supports a model of separate magmatic arc/subduction zone complexes, consistent with the existence of adjacent, structurally imbricated turbidite zones with opposite tectonic vergence, inferred by other workers to be independent accretionary prisms. Arc magmas associated with this ‘double convergent’ subduction system in the east Lachlan Fold Belt were heavily contaminated by Ordovician sediment, recently buried during the early Benambran deformation, causing the shift from mafic to silicic (S‐type) magmatism. In contrast, the central Lachlan Fold Belt magmatic arc, represented by the Wagga‐Omeo Zone, only began in the Early Silurian in response to subduction associated with the early Benambran northeast‐southwest shortening. The model requires that the S‐type and subsequent I‐type (Late Silurian — Devonian) granites of the Lachlan Fold Belt were associated with ongoing, subduction‐related tectonic activity.     

Late Palaeozoic arc flank and fore‐arc basin sequence of the New England fold belt in the stanage bay region,central Queensland

Devonian and Carboniferous (Yarrol terrane) rocks, Early Permian strata, and Permian‐(?)Triassic plutons outcrop in the Stanage Bay region of the northern New England Fold Belt. The Early‐(?)Middle Devonian Mt Holly Formation consists mainly of coarse volcaniclastic rocks of intermediate‐silicic provenance, and mafic, intermediate and silicic volcanics. Limestone is abundant in the Duke Island, along with a significant component of quartz sandstone on Hunter Island. Most Carboniferous rocks can be placed in two units, the late Tournaisian‐Namurian Campwyn Volcanics, composed of coarse volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks, silicic ash flow tuff and widespread oolitic limestone, and the conformably overlying Neerkol Formation dominated by volcaniclastic sandstone and siltstone with uncommon pebble conglomerate and scattered silicic ash fall tuff. Strata of uncertain stratigraphic affinity are mapped as ‘undifferentiated Carboniferous’. The Early Permian Youlambie Conglomerate unconformably overlies Carboniferous rocks. It consists of mudstone, sandstone and conglomerate, the last containing clasts of Carboniferous sedimentary rocks, diverse volcanics and rare granitic rocks. Intrusive bodies include the altered and variably strained Tynemouth Diorite of possible Devonian age, and a quartz monzonite mass of likely Late Permian or Triassic age.

The rocks of the Yarrol terrane accumulated in shallow (Mt Holly, Campwyn) and deeper (Neerkol) marine conditions proximal to an active magmatic arc which was probably of continental margin type. The Youlambie Conglomerate was deposited unconformably above the Yarrol terrane in a rift basin. Late Permian regional deformation, which involved east‐west horizontal shortening achieved by folding, cleavage formation and east‐over‐west thrusting, increases in intensity towards the east.     

Regional thermal history of the Lennard shelf,Canning Basin,from apatite fission track analysis: Implications for the formation of Pb‐Zn ore deposits

Zinc mineralization in Devonian carbonates of the Lennard Shelf, northern Canning Basin is similar in many respects to that of the Mississippi Valley‐type including estimated minimum temperatures of sulphide precipitation between 70 and 110°C. Apparent apatite fission track ages for Precambrian granitic basement and for detrital apatites in Devonian carbonates in and near Pb‐Zn mineralization generally range between 260 and 340 Ma, with Precambrian samples tending to have slightly older apatite fission track ages than the Devonian carbonates. These apparent ages are younger than the stratigraphic age of the material analysed, indicating that appreciable annealing of fission tracks in apatite has occurred in post‐Devonian times. Mean horizontal confined track lengths are 12–13 μm for most samples and preclude attaching any ‘event’ significance to the fission track ages. Studies of well sequences (Grevillea 1 and Kennedia 1) indicate a period of rapid uplift in the area during the Late Triassic/Early Jurassic. Assuming a constant geothermal gradient of 30°C/km, approximately 1.5 km of uplift and erosion is estimated. Immediate thermal effects related to Miocene lamproite intrusion into Precambrian basement appear to be restricted to within 200 m of the contact zone.

For outcropping Devonian carbonates, a thermal history is proposed involving burial in the Late Palaeozoic/Early Mesozoic, followed by uplift and cooling from peak temperatures around 70–80°C in mid‐Mesozoic times. With reference to this period of burial, Pb‐Zn occurrences represent thermal anomalies when reported fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures are compared with the estimated peak temperatures. However the possibility of a phase of higher temperatures during the Late Devonian/ Early Carboniferous is suggested by the apatite fission track results, in which case sulphide mineralization may reflect ambient regional temperatures if it formed at that time. The absence of enhanced annealing effects in detrital apatites proximal to Pb‐Zn deposits suggests that either sulphide mineralization preceded or accompanied peak regional temperatures suspected during the Late Devonian/Early Carboniferous, or that the mineralizing episodes were of too short a duration to significantly anneal fission tracks in apatite.     

Provenance comparisons between the Nambucca Block,Eastern Australia and the Torlesse Composite Terrane,New Zealand: connections and implications from detrital zircon age patterns

Detrital zircon U–Pb LAM-ICPMS age patterns for sandstones from the mid-Permian –Triassic part (Rakaia Terrane) of the accretionary wedge forming the Torlesse Composite Terrane in Otago, New Zealand, and from the early Permian Nambucca Block of the New England Orogen, eastern Australia, constrain the development of the early Gondwana margin. In Otago, the Triassic Torlesse samples have a major (64%), younger group of Permian–Early Triassic age components at ca 280, 255 and 240 Ma, and a minor (30%) older age group with a Precambrian–early Paleozoic range (ca 1000, 600 and 500 Ma). In Permian sandstones nearby, the younger, Late Permian age components are diminished (30%) with respect to the older Precambrian–early Paleozoic age group, which now also contains major (50%) and unusual Carboniferous age components at ca 350–330 Ma. Sandstones from the Nambucca Block, an early Permian extensional basin in the southern New England Orogen, follow the Torlesse pattern: the youngest. Early Permian age components are minor (<20%) and the overall age patterns are dominated (40%) by Carboniferous age components (ca 350–320 Ma). These latter zircons are inherited from either the adjacent Devonian–Carboniferous accretionary wedge (e.g. Texas-Woolomin and Coffs Harbour Blocks) or the forearc basin (Tamworth Belt) farther to the west, in which volcaniclastic-dominated sandstone units have very similar pre-Permian (principally Carboniferous) age components. This gradual variation in age patterns from Devonian–late Carboniferous time in Australia to Late Permian–mid-Cretaceous time in New Zealand suggests an evolutionary model for the Eastern Gondwanaland plate margin and the repositioning of its subduction zone. (1) A Devonian to Carboniferous accretionary wedge in the New England Orogen developing at a (present-day) Queensland position until late in the Carboniferous. (2) Early Permian outboard repositioning of the primary, magmatic arc allowing formation of extensional basins throughout the New England Orogen. (3) Early to mid-Permian translocation of the accretionary wedge and more inboard active-margin elements, southwards to their present position. This was accompanied by oroclinal bending which allowed the initiation of a new, late Permian to Early Triassic accretionary wedge (eventually the Torlesse Composite Terrane of New Zealand) in an offshore Queensland position. (4) Jurassic–Cretaceous development of this accretionary wedge offshore, in northern Zealandia, with southwards translation of the various constituent terranes of the Torlesse Composite Terrane to their present New Zealand position.     

Variable hangingwall palaeotransport during Silurian and Devonian thrusting in the western Lachlan Fold Belt: Missing gold lodes,synchronous Melbourne Trough sedimentation and Grampians Group fold interference

The western margin of the Lachlan Fold Belt contains early ductile and brittle structures that formed during northeast‐southwest and east‐west compression, followed by reactivation related to sinistral wrenching. At Stawell all of these structural features (and the associated gold lodes) are dismembered by a complex array of later northwest‐, north‐ and northeast‐dipping faults. Detailed underground structural analysis has identified northwest‐trending mid‐Devonian thrusts (Tabberabberan) that post‐date Early Devonian plutonism and have a top‐to‐the‐southwest transport. Deformation associated with the initial stages of dismemberment occurred along an earlier array of faults that trend southwest‐northeast (or east‐west) and dip to the northwest (or north). The initial transport of the units in the hangingwall of these fault structures was top‐to‐the‐southeast. ‘Missing’ gold lodes were discovered beneath the Magdala orebody by reconstructing a displacement history that involved a combination of transport vectors (top‐to‐the‐southeast and top‐to‐the‐southwest). Fold interference structures in the adjacent Silurian Grampians Group provide further evidence for at least two almost orthogonal shortening regimes, post the mid‐Silurian. Overprinting relationships, and correlation with synchronous sedimentation in the Melbourne Trough, indicates that the early fault structures are mid‐ to late‐Silurian in age (Ludlow: ca 420–414 Ma). These atypical southeast‐vergent structures have regional extent and separate significant northeast‐southwest shortening that occurred in the mid‐Devonian (‘Tabberabberan orogeny’) and Late Ordovician (‘Benambran orogeny’).     

Carboniferous–Permian Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Environment of Southeastern Inner Mongolia, China: Constraints on Final Closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean

In this paper we discuss the timing of final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean based on the field investigations of the Carboniferous–Permian stratigraphic sequences and sedimentary environments in southeastern Inner Mongolia combined with the geology of its neighboring areas. Studies show that during the Carboniferous–Permian in the eastern segment of the Tianshan-Hinggan Orogenic System, there was a giant ENE–NE-trending littoral-neritic to continental sedimentary basin, starting in the west from Ejinqi eastwards through southeastern Inner Mongolia into Jilin and Heilongjiang. The distribution of the Lower Carboniferous in the vast area is sparse. The Late Carboniferous or Permian volcanic-sedimentary rocks always unconformably overlie the Devonian or older units. The Upper Carboniferous–Middle Permian is dominated by littoral-neritic deposits and the Upper Permian, by continental deposits. The Late Carboniferous–Permian has no trace of subduction-collision orogeny, implying the basin gradually disappeared by shrinking and shallowing. In addition, it is of interest to note that the Ondor Sum and Hegenshan ophiolitic mélanges were formed in the pre-Late Silurian and pre-Late Devonian respectively, and the Solonker ophiolitic mélange formed in the pre-Late Carboniferous. All the evidence indicates that the eastern segment of the Paleo-Asian Ocean had closed before the Late Carboniferous, and most likely before the latest Devonian (Famennian).     

Emplacement and deformation of the Wyangala Batholith,New South Wales

The Wyangala Batholith, in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales, is pre‐tectonic with respect to the deformation that caused the foliation in the granite, and was emplaced during a major thermal event, perhaps associated with dextral shearing, during the Late Silurian to Early Devonian Bowning Orogeny. This followed the first episode of folding in the enclosing Ordovician country rocks. Intrusion was facilitated by upward displacement of fault blocks, with local stoping. Weak magmatic flow fabrics are present. After crystallization of the granite, a swarm of mafic dykes intruded both the granite and country rock, possibly being derived from the same tectonic regime responsible for emplacement of the Wyangala Batholith. A contact aureole surrounding the granite contains cordierite‐biotite and cordierite‐andalusite assemblages. Slaty cleavage produced in the first deformation was largely obliterated by recrystallization in the contact aureole.

Postdating granite emplacement and basic dyke intrusion, a second regional deformation was accompanied by regional metamorphism ranging from lower greenschist to albite‐epidote‐amphibolite facies, and produced tectonic foliations, termed S and C, in the granite, and a foliation, S₂, in the country rocks. Contact metamorphic rocks underwent retrogressive regional metamorphism at this time. S formed under east‐west shortening and vertical extension, concurrently with S₂. C surfaces probably formed concurrently with S and indicate reverse fault motion on west‐dipping ductile shear surfaces. The second deformation may be related to Devonian or Early Carboniferous movement on the Copperhannia Thrust east of the Wyangala Batholith.     

Tectonics and geodynamics of Gorny Altai and adjacent structures of the Altai–Sayan folded area

Packages of Late Paleozoic tectonic nappes and associated major NE-trending strike-slip faults are widely developed in the Altai–Sayan folded area. Fragments of early deformational phases are preserved within the Late Paleozoic allochthons and autochthons. Caledonian fold-nappe and strike-slip structures, as well as accompanying metamorphism and granitization in the region, are typical of the EW-trending suture-shear zone separating the composite Kazakhstan–Baikal continent and Siberia. In the Gorny Altai region, the Late Paleozoic nappes envelop the autochthon, which contains a fragment of the Vendian–Cambrian Kuznetsk–Altai island arc with accretionary wedges of the Biya–Katun’ and Kurai zones. The fold-nappe deformations within the latter zones occurred during the Late Cambrian (Salairian) and can thus be considered Salairian orogenic phases. The Salairian fold-nappe structure is stratigraphically overlain by a thick (up to 15 km) well-stratified rock unit of the Anyui–Chuya zone, which is composed of Middle Cambrian–Early Ordovician fore-arc basin rocks unconformably overlain by Ordovician–Early Devonian carbonate-terrigenous passive-margin sequences. These rocks are crosscut by intrusions and overlain by a volcanosedimentary unit of the Devonian active margin. The top of the section is marked by Famennian–Visean molasse deposits onlapping onto Devonian rocks. The molasse deposits accumulated above a major unconformity reflects a major Late Paleozoic phase of folding, which is most pronounced in deformations at the edges of the autochthon, nearby the Kaim, Charysh–Terekta, and Teletskoe–Kurai fault nappe zones. Upper Carboniferous coal-bearing molasse deposits are preserved as tectonic wedges within the Charysh–Terekta and Teletskoe–Kurai fault nappe zones.Detrital zircon ages from Middle Cambrian–Early Ordovician rocks of the Anyui–Chuya fore-arc zone indicate that they were primarily derived from Upper Neoproterozoic–Cambrian igneous rocks of the Kuznetsk–Altai island arc or, to a lesser extent, from an Ordovician–Early Devonian passive margin. A minor age population is represented by Paleoproterozoic grains, which was probably sourced from the Siberian craton. Zircons from the Late Carboniferous molasse deposits have much wider age spectra, ranging from Middle Devonian–Early Carboniferous to Late Ordovician–Early Silurian, Cambrian–Early Ordovician, Mesoproterozoic, Early–Middle Proterozoic, and early Paleoproterozoic. These ages are consistent with the ages of igneous and metamorphic rocks of the composite Kazakhstan–Baikal continent, which includes the Tuva-Mongolian island arc with accreted Gondwanan blocks, and a Caledonian suture-shear zone in the north. Our results suggest that the Altai–Sayan region is represented by a complex aggregate of units of different geodynamic affinity. On the one hand, these are continental margin rocks of western Siberia, containing only remnants of oceanic crust embedded in accretionary structures. On the other hand, they are represented by the Kazakhstan–Baikal continent composed of fragments of Gondwanan continental blocks. In the Early–Middle Paleozoic, they were separated by the Ob’–Zaisan oceanic basin, whose fragments are preserved in the Caledonian suture-shear zone. The movements during the Late Paleozoic occurred along older, reactivated structures and produced the large intracontinental Central Asian orogen, which is interpreted to be a far-field effect of the colliding East European, Siberian, and Kazakhstan–Baikal continents.     

Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Boco Plain,western Tasmania

The Late Devonian‐Early Carboniferous Mansfield Basin is the northernmost structural sub‐basin of the Mt Howitt Province of east‐central Victoria. It is comprised predominantly of continental clastic sedimentary rocks, and is superimposed upon deformed Cambrian to Early Devonian marine sequences of the Palaeozoic Lachlan Fold Belt. This paper documents evidence for synsedimentary deformation during the early history of the Mansfield Basin, via sedimentological, structural and stratigraphic investigations. Repeating episodes of folding, erosion and sedimentation are demonstrated along the preserved western margins of Mansfield Basin, where fold structures within the lower sequences are truncated by intrabasinal syntectonic unconformities. A convergent successor basin setting (an intermontane setting adjacent to, or between major fault zones) is suggested for initial phases of basin deposition, with synsedimentary reverse faulting being responsible for source uplift and subsequent basin deformation. Palaeocurrents within conglomerate units indicate derivation from the west and are consistent with episodic thrusting along basin margin faults providing elevated source regions. Periods of tectonic quiescence are represented by finer grained meandering fluvial facies (indicative of lower regional topographic gradients) which display drainage patterns that appear not to have been influenced by bounding faults to the west. An up‐sequence increase in the textural and compositional maturity of basin sandstones and conglomerates is proposed to be a result of the incorporation of basin fill into ongoing basin deformation, with unstable metapelitic rocks being progressively winnowed from clast populations. Rather than resulting from Carboniferous (Kanimblan) reactivation of extensional structures, as is generally assumed, the deformation observed within the lower units of the Mansfield Basin is suggested here to be essentially syndepositional and at least Late Devonian in age.     

Evolution of central eastern Australia during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic

Palaeogeographic reconstructions and structural analysis of the Late Carboniferous to Triassic of central eastern Australia indicate that sedimentation and deformation were responses to the prolonged application of a dextral rotational force couple to the craton margin and to eustatic sea‐level changes. The force couple distorted the craton margins and adjacent Yarrol‐New England geosyncline and orogen into an incipient coupled orocline. The influence of the couple commenced in the Late Devonian and continued with varying effect until the Late Triassic, when it reversed to a sinistral system, part of a completely different stress regime that controlled sedimentation and structure during the Early Jurassic. Within the craton, deformation mainly took the form of a series of en echelon depressions, such as the Drummond Basin, Koburra, Denison and Taroom Troughs. A lineament between Longreach and Roma marks the southern boundary of this type of strain, although crust beyond its limit was not so rigid as to be unaffected by the force couple. The Yarrol‐New England region during the Devonian and the Early Carboniferous was the site of geosynclinal deposition where a thick and typically volcanogenic wedge lay along the eastern border of the craton. During the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian comparable wedges were formed farther to the east, in effect building outwards into the geosyncline. The same tensional regime that created the geosyncline is seen as the means for thinning crust below the sediment wedge and thus provided thermal instability, and for the igneous diapirism expressed as both intrusion and extrusion that characterizes the orogen from the Late Carboniferous onwards. The dextral force couple was responsible for most of the deformation and for controlling final emplacement of plutons. Sea‐level rises were marked in the late Early Permian and again in the early Late Permian.     

Provenance of middle to late Palaeozoic sediments in the northeastern Colombian Andes: implications for Pangea reconstruction

ABSTRACT

Global-scale Palaeozoic plate tectonic reconstructions have suggested that Laurentia was obliquely approaching against the northwestern margin of Gondwana until the final agglutination of Pangea. In this contribution integrated petrographic analysis, heavy mineral analysis, and tourmaline geochemistry were done, and U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology was obtained, in late Palaeozoic sedimentary and meta-sedimentary units from the Floresta and Santander Massifs in the Eastern Colombian Andes in order to constrain their provenance and related it with the magmatic, sedimentary, and deformational record of the Gondwana–Laurentia convergence until the late Carboniferous to Permian formation of Pangea. Late Devonian to early Carboniferous sandstones from the Floresta Massif changed from sublithoarenites to lithoarenites, tracking the progressive uplift and unroofing of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, with associated volcanic activity. The U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology from the sedimentary and metasedimentary of Floresta and Santander documents Mesoproterozoic and Palaeoproterozoic sources, and younger Ordovician to Silurian age populations, that can be related to the early to middle Palaeozoic plutonic rocks and the Amazon Craton. The limited Silurian to Early Devonian detrital ages that contrast with the more significant Middle to Late Devonian zircons that document the erosion of contemporaneous magmatic sources formed after a late Silurian to Early Devonian reduction on the magmatic activity along the proto-Andean margin. These rocks were apparently deformed and metamorphosed between the late Carboniferous and the early Permian. It is suggested that the filling and deformation record of these rocks documented the changes in plate convergence obliquity at the western margin of Gondwana associated with the migration of Laurentia until its final position in Pangea. Between the late Carboniferous and the early Permian, peri-Gondwanan continental terranes also collided with the continental margin. Over-imposed Mesozoic tectonics have contributed to the final redistribution of these terranes to their current position.

Abbreviations:LA: laser ablation inductively couple mass spectrometer; CL: cathodoluminiscence     

Soft-sediment deformation of sandstone related to the Dwyka glaciation in South Africa

Sandstones of the uppermost Witteberg Group in the Cape fold belt of South Africa exhibit unusual and distinctive soft-sediment deformation structures. These structures include folds, axial planar cleavage and micro-fold lineations. Interfering fold patterns and intersecting sets of lineations are indicative of repeated deformation. The sandstones are immediately overlain by glacial and proglacial sediments of the Carboniferous Dwyka Group, indicating that the deformation was related to glaciation. Possible environments of deformation include: (a) subglacial dragging of unconsolidated material, (b) subaqueous slumping beyond the limit of floating ice, and (c) englacial deformation of material incorporated by freezing into the base of the glacier.     

东天山板块缝合区(带)的构造演化与多金属矿床成矿的关系

研究表明位于康古尔断裂和阿齐克库都克断裂之间的东天山板块缝合(区)带经历了4个阶段的演化过程, 即泥盆纪吐哈古大洋形成、早石炭世俯冲造山、晚石炭世碰撞造山以及二叠纪造山期后缝合带的进一步变形.自北而南划分为4个构造带, 共同组成了一个向下收敛的楔状缝合区(带).东天山的矿产严格受构造控制, 相应地从北向南分布有前缘推覆带斑岩型铜矿床→蛇绿混杂岩带铜(镍)硫化物矿床和韧性剪切带型金矿床→叠瓦岩片带矽卡岩型铜多金属矿床→热液型金矿床.这些类型的矿床集结成东天山地区4条大的成矿带: 康古尔断裂以北铜矿带, 金、铜镍硫化物矿床成矿带(北带), 阿齐山-雅满苏铁(铜)、银多金属成矿带(南带)和中天山地块铁、铅锌、银成矿带.