U – Pb zircon ages from leucogneiss in the Etheridge Group and their significance for the early history of the Georgetown region,north Queensland

The Timbarra Tablelands pluton is an extensive (～550 km²) complexly zoned intrusion forming one of many predominantly monzogranite I‐type plutons, which constitute the Moonbi Supersuite in northern New South Wales, Australia. It comprises an outer rim of Rocky River monzogranite (Zones 1–3), an intermediate zone of Sandy Creek syenogranite (Zones 4A–4C), surrounding a core of Surface Hill syenogranite (Zones 5–7). The suite is calc‐alkaline, high‐K, and varies from mildly metaluminous to weakly peraluminous with increasing fractionation. Average Rb/Sr ratios range from 0.4 in the least evolved very coarse‐grained monzogranite (Zone 3) to 46 in the most evolved very fine‐grained biotite microgranite (Zone 6). Trace‐element modelling indicates that the observed compositional variation could have been produced by crystal fractionation. New bulk rock major‐ and trace‐element data for 71 samples are presented, and indicate that a compositional continuum exists that varies between 63 and 78 wt% SiO₂. Importantly, there is no systematic chemical variation with spatial distribution of samples from the core of the pluton to its margin, requiring multiple separate pulses of an evolving magma to explain compositional discontinuities. The pluton is interpreted to have been emplaced at mesozonal levels (～180 ± 60 MPa, 5–10 km depth) and crystallised at temperatures between 620 and 820°C under moderately oxidising conditions (log fO₂ = ‐11.5 to ‐19). The association of gold‐molybdenite mineralisation at Timbarra with moderately oxidised I‐type magmas is consistent with fractionation‐redox controls on ore‐element behaviour in magmatic systems in other studies.     

Coeval basin formation,plutonism and metamorphism in the Northern Tasmanides: extensional Cambro-Ordovician tectonism of the Charters Towers Province

Abstract

The Charters Towers Province, of the northern Thomson Orogen, records conversion from a Neoproterozoic passive margin to a Cambrian active margin, as characteristic of the Tasmanides. The passive margin succession includes a thick metasedimentary unit derived from Mesoproterozoic rocks. The Cambrian active margin is represented by upper Cambrian–Lower Ordovician (500–460?Ma) basinal development (Seventy Mile Range Group), plutonism and metamorphism resulting from an enduring episode of arc–backarc crustal extension. Detrital zircon age spectra indicate that parts of the metamorphic basement of the Charters Towers Province (elements of the Argentine Metamorphics and Charters Towers Metamorphics) overlap in protolith age with the basal part of the Seventy Mile Range Group and thus were associated with extensional basin development. Detrital zircon age data from the extensional basin succession indicate it was derived from a far-field (Pacific-Gondwana) primary source. However, a young cluster (<510?Ma) is interpreted as reflecting a local igneous source related to active margin tectonism. Relict zircon in a tonalite phase of the Fat Hen Creek Complex suggests that active margin plutonism may have extended back to ca 530?Ma. Syntectonic plutonism in the western Charters Towers Province is dated at ca 485–480?Ma, close to timing of metamorphism (477–467?Ma) and plutonism more generally (508–455?Ma). The dominant structures in the metamorphic basement formed with gentle to subhorizontal dips and are inferred to have formed by extensional ductile deformation, while normal faulting developed at shallower depths, associated with heat advection by plutonism. Lower Silurian (Benambran) shortening, which affected metamorphic basement and extensional basin units, resulted in the dominant east–west-structural trends of the province. We consider that these trends reflect localised north–south shortening rather than rotation of the province as is consistent with the north–south paleogeographic alignment of extensional basin successions.

1. KEY POINTS

2. Northern Tasmanide transition from passive to active margin tectonic mode had occurred by ca 510?Ma, perhaps as early as ca 530?Ma.

3. Cambro-Ordovician active margin tectonism of the Charters Towers Province (northern Thomson Orogen) was characterised by crustal extension.

4. Crustal extension resulted in the development of coeval (500–460?Ma) basin fill, granitic plutonism and metamorphism with rock assemblages as exposed across the Charters Towers Province developed at a wide range of crustal levels and expressing heterogeneous exhumation.

5. Protoliths of metasedimentary assemblages of the Charters Towers Province include both Proterozoic passive margin successions and those emplaced as Cambrian extensional basin fill.

     

Structural history of the Greenvale Province,north Queensland: Early Palaeozoic extension and convergence on the Pacific margin of Gondwana*

The southeastern Georgetown Inlier (Greenvale Province) consists of Early Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks in fault contact along the Lynd Mylonite Zone with the Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic craton of northeastern Australia. It has a central assemblage of metamorphosed silicic volcanic and sedimentary rocks considered equivalent to the Late Cambrian to Early Ordovician Seventy Mile Range Group that developed in an extensional backarc in the Charters Towers Province to the southeast. In the western part of the Greenvale Province, the Oasis Metamorphics have a U – Pb zircon SHRIMP metamorphic age of 476 ± 5 Ma and are intruded by the granodioritic Lynwater Complex with U – Pb zircon ages of 486 ± 5 Ma and 477 ± 6 Ma. These ages are consistent with these rocks forming basement and intrusive equivalents to the extensional volcanic basin. Existing geochronological constraints on the Halls Reward domain, located at the eastern margin of the province, are consistent with it being basement to the extensional basin. Several domains are recognised in the Greenvale Province with either dominantly steep or low to moderate dips of the main foliation, and each experienced multiple deformation with locally up to four overprinting structural phases. Steepening of foliation in several of the domains is attributed to contractional deformation in the Early Silurian that is inferred to have overprinted low-angle foliation developed during extensional tectonics in the backarc setting. Contractional deformation related to the Early Silurian Benambran Orogeny is considered responsible for multiple deformation in the Greenvale Province and reactivation of domain-bounding faults.     

U‐Pb zircon age for the Etheridge Group,Georgetown region,north Queensland: Implications for relationship with the Broken Hill and Mt Isa sequences*

The Einasleigh Metamorphics are the lowest exposed component of the Etheridge Group, part of the Etheridge Province, in the Georgetown region of north Queensland. Previous dating of granites has imposed a younger age limit of about 1550 Ma for the depositional age of the Etheridge Group. Based on SHRIMP U‐Pb analyses of zircon from mafic (1674.9 ±3.3 Ma and 1655.9 ±2.2 Ma) and felsic (1695.8 ± 1.5 Ma and 1684.2 ± 2.1 Ma) intrusive rocks in the Einasleigh Metamorphics, it can now be demonstrated that deposition commenced at about 1700 Ma, and continued for an estimated 100 million years. The stratabound, base‐metal deposits in the Mt Isa Inlier, Broken Hill Block and McArthur Basin formed in the early part of this time span, thereby suggesting potential for these styles of mineralisation in the Georgetown region.