--> Tracing the Exhumation of Central Southern Australia and Fingerprinting Detrital Pathways and Sediment Sinks in the Ceduna Basin

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Tracing the Exhumation of Central Southern Australia and Fingerprinting Detrital Pathways and Sediment Sinks in the Ceduna Basin

James W. Hall1, Max Reddy1, Jarred Lloyd1, Stijn Glorie1, Noreen Evans2, Justin L. Payne3, Alan S. Collins1, Anthony Reid4 and Simon Holford5

1Centre for Tectonics, Resources and Exploration (TRaX), Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
2John de Laeter Centre for Mass Spectrometry, Curtin University, Adelaide, WA, Australia.
3Centre for Tectonics, Resources and Exploration (TRaX), School of Built and Natural Environments, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
4Geological Survey of South Australia, Department of State Development, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
5Centre for Tectonics, Resources and Exploration (TRaX), Australian School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

September 16, 2015 Wednesday 1:45 P.M. International Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Low-temperature thermochronology provides information on the thermal evolution of a region, which can yield insights into the stability of continental interiors relative to far-field tectonic events. It also reveals the exhumation and detritus-generating potential of a region as periods of cooling-related exhumation in the hinterland of a detrital system which can be tracked through sediment dispersion pathways to the final location of the detritus in the resulting sedimentary basin. Here we report the initial results of a holistic source-to-sink study being undertaken in central/north South Australia. Apatite fission track and zircon and apatite U-Th-Sm/He analyses were applied to a set of meta-igneous and granitic rocks, taken along a roughly north-south transect over the central Gawler Craton and from outcrops on the Peake and Denison inliers in northern South Australia. These results assist in developing a multistage exhumation and burial history developed by tectonic movements and erosional incision throughout the region that formed the hinterland of the Mesozoic Ceduna River. New zircon Hf isotopic data from the upper Santonian-Maastrichtian delta in the Gnarlyknots-1A well of the offshore Ceduna Basin and the earlier Cretaceous Winton Formation of the Eromanga Basin, are integrated with existing U-Pb age data to assist in tracking the sediments through Australia to their eventual source.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90217 © 2015 International Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, September 13-16, 2015