恰什坎萨伊沟玄武岩年代学、地球化学特征及其对北阿尔金洋盆闭合过程的制约

北阿尔金恰什坎萨伊沟红柳泉以南早古生代蛇绿岩剖面发育两段玄武岩岩片.北段玄武岩锆石LA-ICP-MS U-Pb定年与前人对南段玄武岩定年结果(晚奥陶世)相近,表明该玄武岩形成于中—晚奥陶世;样品TR050-10-1锆石热干扰年龄为421～412 Ma、395～388 Ma和283～228Ma,TR050-13-1锆石热干扰年龄为442～434Ma、415Ma和241～221Ma.地球化学特征显示北段玄武岩和南段玄武岩的岩浆演化过程中均以单斜辉石结晶分异为主,仅表现极轻微地壳物质混染;二者均来自尖晶石二辉橄榄岩地幔源区,前者源区为原始尖晶石二辉橄榄岩相,后者源区为原始—亏损尖晶石二辉橄榄岩过渡相,前者的部分熔融程度更高.微量元素、稀土元素及构造判别图解指示其为形成于聚合背景下的E-MORB型拉斑玄武岩,具弧后盆地性质.结合区域资料,提出北阿尔金早古生代洋盆4阶段闭合模式:①早期俯冲阶段(∈2～O1),②晚期俯冲阶段(O1～O3),③俯冲-碰撞转换阶段(O3～S2),④后碰撞造山阶段(S3～D2).     

歧口凹陷火成岩的地球化学特征、形成时代及构造意义

歧口凹陷侏罗系火成岩主要以中-酸性的流纹岩、粗面岩和粗面安山岩为主,白垩系主要为中-基性的粗面玄武岩和玄武质粗面安山岩,第三系火成岩以粗面玄武岩、碱性玄武岩及辉绿岩为主。同位素定年结果获得白垩系玄武岩的年龄为133±20 Ma,安山岩和粗安岩年龄分别为111.8±0.9 Ma和122.1±3.1 Ma,第三系辉绿岩年龄为16.57±0.23 Ma。地球化学特征显示,侏罗系火成岩相对低钛、高碱和钠、低铁镁,轻重稀土元素强烈分馏、微量元素相对富集LILE、贫化HFSE、亏损Nb和Ti、P,部分高Sr、低Yb,总体指示为挤压环境下加厚地壳物质的熔融产物,白垩系火成岩中等钛和碱的含量,高钠、铁和镁,稀土和微量元素显示其来自于伸展背景的富集地幔源,但受到陆壳物质的混染,第三系火成岩高钛含量、中等碱含量但变化大、高钠、富铁镁,轻重稀土元素分馏弱到中等、微量元素富集LILE和HFSE,同样来自板内伸展环境的富集地幔源的产物。表明歧口凹陷构造转换发生在晚侏罗世和早白垩世之间。     

Great Victoria Desert: Development and sand provenance

Sands of the Great Victoria Desert, south‐central Australia, can be divided into three main groups on the basis of their physical and chemical characteristics (colour, grainsize parameters, mineralogy of heavy‐mineral suites, quartz oxygen isotopic composition, zircon U–Pb ages). The groups occupy the western, central and eastern Great Victoria Desert respectively, boundaries between them corresponding approximately to changes in the underlying rocks associated with the Yilgarn Craton to Officer Basin to Arckaringa Basin. Several lines of evidence suggest derivation of the sands mainly from local bedrock with very little subsequent aeolian transport. Ultimate protosources for the sands, each in order of importance, are: western Great Victoria Desert—Yilgarn Craton, Albany‐Fraser Orogen, Musgrave Complex; central Great Victoria Desert—Musgrave Complex; eastern Great Victoria Desert—Gawler and Curnamona Blocks, Adelaide Geosyncline, Musgrave Complex. Sediment from the Adelaide Geosyncline includes in addition an ‘exotic’ component from Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks probably derived mainly from Antarctica. Sediment transport of several hundred kilometres from these protosources to the sedimentary basins was dominantly by fluvial, not aeolian, means. Post‐Tertiary aeolian transport or reworking has been minimal, serving only to shape sand eroded from underlying sedimentary rocks or residual products of local basement weathering into the current dunes.     

Ion microprobe baddeleyite and zircon ages for Late Archaean mafic dykes of the Pilbara Craton,Western Australia

Ion microprobe U–Th–Pb analyses of baddeleyite and zircon yield precise ages for several mafic intrusions in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. Baddeleyite was dated from four dolerite dykes of the north‐northeast‐trending Black Range swarm intruded into granitoid‐greenstone basement in the northern part of the craton. The mean ²⁰⁷Pb*/²⁰⁶Pb* age of 2772 ± 2 Ma, interpreted as an unambiguous age of emplacement for the dykes, is within error of previous ion microprobe U–Pb zircon ages for the Mt Roe flood basalts and confirms that the dykes acted as feeders to the volcanic rocks. The Sylvania Inlier, in the southeastern Pilbara Craton, also contains north‐northeast‐trending dykes that were correlated previously with the Black Range swarm. Based on concordant and discordant zircon analyses from samples of two dykes, the best estimate of the age of the Sylvania dykes is 2747 ± 4 Ma. The Sylvania dykes thus appear to be significantly younger than, and hence unrelated to, the Black Range swarm, but may have acted as feeders to younger volcanic units in the Fortescue Group such as the Kylena Formation.     

Structure and age of the northern Leeuwin Complex,Western Australia: Constraints from field mapping and U–Pb isotopic analysis

Rocks in the northern Leeuwin Complex of southwestern Australia preserve evidence of having formed during the breakup of Rodinia and the subsequent amalgamation of Gondwana. Detailed field mapping, structural investigation and U–Pb isotopic zircon analysis, using the Sensitive High‐mass Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP), have revealed that: (i) protoliths of pink granite gneiss and grey granodiorite gneiss crystallised at ca 750 Ma, coeval with breakup of western Rodinia; (ii) granulite/upper amphibolite facies metamorphism occurred at 522 ± 5 Ma, in the Early Cambrian, ～100 million years later than previous estimates and of identical age to estimates of the final amalgamation of Gondwana; and (iii) three major phases of ductile deformation occurred during or after this metamorphism and represent a progressive strain evolution from subvertical shortening (D1) to subhorizontal east‐west (D2) then north‐northwest‐south‐southeast (D3) contraction.     

An apparent magmatic cycle in the Tasman geosyncline

The igneous events of two geosynclines within the N.S.W. portion of the Tasman Orthogeosyncline are compared, not according to the actual ages of the igneous rocks, but on the basis of their position with respect to the development of the geosyncline. Thus, Cambrian volcanic rocks in one depositional area are compared with Lower Devonian in the other, Ordovician and Silurian with Middle Devonian‐Lower Carboniferous, and Devonian with Permian. Intrusive rocks are fitted into this scheme, and their ages discussed. Such a comparison reveals an apparent igneous cycle, and speculations on the cause of such a cycle are outlined.     

Potassium‐argon dates from the Arltunga Nappe complex,northern territory

Twenty‐four mineral separates from the Arunta Complex, four from the metamorphosed Heavitree Quartzite (White Range Quartzite), and one whole rock sample of metamorphosed Bitter Springs Formation, all from the western part of the White Range Nappe of the Arltunga Nappe Complex, and two samples from the autochthonous basement west of the nappe have been dated by the K‐Ar method. The samples from the basement rocks form two groups. Those in the southern or frontal part of the nappe are of Middle Proterozoic (Carpentarian) age (1660–1368 m.y.), determined on hornblende, biotite, and muscovite. In the northern or rear part of the nappe, all but one of the muscovite samples and two biotites are of Middle Silurian to Early Carboniferous age (431–345 m.y.); the remainder of the biotite dates range from 1775 to 548 m.y. (including the two samples from the autochthon), and two hornblendes gave dates of 1639 and 2132 m.y. respectively. All the muscovite samples from the Heavitree Quartzite, and the whole rock sample from the Bitter Springs Formation gave Early to Middle Carboniferous dates (358–322 m.y.). The findings support the identification of the White Range Quartzite as the metamorphosed part of the Heavitree Quartzite, which in turn supports the interpretation of the structure of the area as a large, basement‐cored fold nappe. In addition, they date the time of the Alice Springs Orogeny as pre‐Late Carboniferous, which agrees with fossil evidence from elsewhere in the area. The Alice Springs Orogeny was accompanied by widespread greenschist facies meta‐morphism that progressively metamorphosed the Heavitree Quartzite and Bitter Springs Formation, and retrogressively metamorphosed the Arunta Complex. However, the basement rocks in the southern part of the nappe escaped this metamorphism and retain a Middle Proterozoic age, thus dating the time of the Arunta Orogeny in this region as Carpentarian or older.     

Granite ages within the Archaean Pilbara Block,Western Australia

Within the Pilbara Block of Western Australia, a complex of migmatite, gneissic and foliated granite near Marble Bar is intruded by a stock of younger massive granite (the Moolyella Granite) with which swarms of tin‐bearing pegmatites are associated. The age of the older granite has been determined by the Rb‐Sr method as 3,125 ± 366 m.y., and that of the Moolyella Granite as 2,670 ± 95 m.y. Initial Sr⁸⁷/Sr⁸⁶ ratios suggest that the older granite is close to primary crustal material, but that the Moolyella Granite consists of reworked material. It probably formed by partial remelting of the older granite.     

Crustal structure under the Sydney Basin and Lachlan Fold Belt,determined from explosion seismic studies

The Lachlan Fold Belt has the velocity‐depth structure of continental crust, with a thickness exceeding 50 km under the region of highest topography in Australia, and in the range 41–44 km under the central Fold Belt and Sydney Basin. There is no evidence of high upper crustal velocities normally associated with marginal or back‐arc basin crustal rocks. The velocities in the lower crust are consistent with an overall increase in metamorphic grade and/or mafic mineral content with depth. Continuing tectonic development throughout the region and the negligible seismicity at depths greater than 30 km indicate that the lower crust is undergoing ductile deformation.

The upper crustal velocities below the Sydney Basin are in the range 5.75–5.9 km/s to about 8 km, increasing to 6.35–6.5 km/s at about 15–17 km depth, where there is a high‐velocity (7.0 km/s) zone for about 9 km evident in results from one direction. The lower crust is characterised by a velocity gradient from about 6.7 km/s at 25 km, to 7.7 km/s at 40–42 km, and a transition to an upper mantle velocity of 8.03–8.12 km/s at 41.5–43.5 km depth.

Across the central Lachlan Fold Belt, velocities generally increase from 5.6 km/s at the surface to 6.0 km/s at 14.5 km depth, with a higher‐velocity zone (5.95 km/s) in the depth range 2.5–7.0 km. In the lower crust, velocities increase from 6.3 km/s at 16 km depth to 7.2 km/s at 40 km depth, then increase to 7.95 km/s at 43 km. A steeper gradient is evident at 26.5–28 km depth, where the velocity is about 6.6—6.8 km/s. Under part of the area an upper mantle low‐velocity zone in the depth range 50–64 km is interpreted from strong events recorded at distances greater than 320 km.

There is no substantial difference in the Moho depth across the boundary between the Sydney Basin and the Lachlan Fold Belt, consistent with the Basin overlying part of the Fold Belt. Pre‐Ordovician rocks within the crust suggest fragmented continental‐type crust existed E of the Precambrian craton and that these contribute to the thick crustal section in SE Australia.     

Décollement folds in Redbank area,northern territory

The structural deformation which produced more than 80 Jura‐type folds each of an axial length exceeding 1 km, in the Redbank Area, N.T., involved only a 360‐to 400‐m thick blanket of sediments. This thin skin of sediments and volcanic rocks, belonging to the Lower Proterozoic Tawallah Group, consists from bottom to top of the Wollogorang Formation, Gold Creek Volcanics, and Pungalina beds. Folding did not involve the underlying Settlement Creek Volcanics or Aquarium Formation. It is postulated that the cause of this detachment and shearing off along the bottom of the thin blanket of sediments is the infiltration of carbonated, K‐rich hydrothermal fluids under high pressure. This occurred during a period of igneous activity related to a postulated deep‐seated alkaline magma thought to be responsible for the many breccia pipes in the area. Thus the folds result from a décollement triggered by high fluid pressure, and from the accompanying gravity gliding and gravitational induced deformation of the thin skin of sediments along a gentle slope.