Deep seismic reflection profiling in the Archaean northeastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia: implications for crustal architecture and mineral potential |
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Authors: | BR Goleby RS Blewett RJ Korsch DC Champion KF Cassidy LEA Jones PB Groenewald P Henson |
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Institution: | aPredictive Mineral Discovery Cooperative Research Centre, c/- Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia;bPredictive Mineral Discovery Cooperative Research Centre, c/- Geoscience Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain Street, East Perth, WA 6004, Australia;cGeological Survey of Western Australia, Kalgoorlie Regional Office, PO Box 1664, Kalgoorlie WA 6430, Australia |
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Abstract: | Deep seismic reflection data across the Archaean Eastern Goldfields Province, northeastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, have provided information on its crustal architecture and on several of its highly mineralised belts. The seismic reflection data allow interpretation of several prominent crustal scale features, including an eastward thickening of the crust, subdivision of the crust into three broad layers, the presence of a prominent east dip to the majority of the reflections and the interpretation of three east-dipping crustal-penetrating shear zones. These east-dipping shear zones are major structures that subdivide the region into four terranes. Major orogenic gold deposits in the Eastern Goldfields Province are spatially associated with these major structures. The Laverton Tectonic Zone, for example, is a highly mineralised corridor that contains several world-class gold deposits plus many smaller deposits. Other non crustal-penetrating structures within the area do not appear to be as well endowed metallogenically as the Laverton structure. The seismic reflection data have also imaged a series of low-angle shear zones within and beneath the granite–greenstone terranes. Where the low-angle shear zones intersect the major crustal-penetrating structures, a wedge shaped geometry is formed. This geometry forms a suitable fluid focusing wedge in which upward to subhorizontal moving fluids are focused and then distributed into the nearby complexly deformed greenstones. |
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Keywords: | Seismic reflection Yilgarn Craton Crustal architecture Shear zones |
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