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  • This Record presents new zircon U-Pb geochronological data, obtained using a Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) for thirty-five samples of plutonic rocks from the New England Orogen, New South Wales. The work was carried out under the auspices of the National Geoscience Accord, as a component of the collaborative Geochronology Project between the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Geoscience Australia (GA) during the reporting periods 2012-2014.

  • The late Permian Wandsworth Volcanic Group (WVG) in the southern New England Orogen (SNEO) is dominated by a monotonous series of amalgamated rhyodacitic to felsic eruptives, with minor interbedded flows, intrusives and sediments. The area enclosing known exposures of the WVG cover more than 30,000 km2, with a minimum thickness of 2 km. The top of the succession, as well as the vast majority of the pile representing non-welded material, has not been preserved. Field relationships indicate a broadly contemporaneous (though not necessarily genetic) relationship with late Permian granite magmatism, while Triassic plutons (typically in the range 246-243 Ma) intrude the WVG. SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating indicates ages around 256.4 ± 1.6 Ma for basal units of the WVG, and 254.1 ± 2.2 Ma for the youngest preserved member of the WVG (Dundee Rhyodacite), defining a short period of substantial intermediate to acid eruptive volcanism. The compositionally unevolved Drake Volcanics to the northeast are older (264.4 ± 2.5 Ma) while those at Halls Peak are older still (Early Permian). Granites of the I-type Moonbi and Uralla Supersuites are dominantly 256-251 Ma and thus overlap in timing (and space) with the WVG event. Interestingly, many mineralized leucogranites (e.g. Parlour Mountain, Oban River, Gilgai) which were formerly regarded as Triassic are now established as synchronous with the Moonbi and Uralla Supersuites and the WVG. The age range of eruption of the WVG permitted by the SHRIMP results (~6 Ma) has been further constrained by CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon analysis which yielded oldest and youngest ages of 255.54 ± 0.16 Ma and 253.26 ± 0.15 Ma respectively, indicating a maximum eruptive time range of ~2 Ma for the preserved pile. Our new results coincide with those determined from CA-ID-TIMS dating of tuffs in the Sydney and Gunnedah Basins. WVG exposures at Attunga are exactly (within ~0.1 Ma) coincident with the age of tuffs within the Trinkey Formation located in the Gunnedah Basin to the west, and the Dundee Rhyodacite is similarly closely matched to the thick Awaba Tuff in the Sydney Basin. Notably, much of the late Permian volcanic and plutonic magmatism in the SNEO is restricted to a remarkably small time range, which coincides exactly with the range of ash fall events in the Sydney and Gunnedah Basins, and possibly further afield. This suggests the SNEO, and the WVG in particular, was the dominant source of volcanic material erupted into these adjacent basins. Further, the adjacent basins may provide a more complete record of Permo-Triassic magmatism in the SNEO than currently preserved within the orogen itself.

  • This report presents new Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe (SHRIMP) U-Pb geochronological results obtained during the Geological Survey of Queensland-Geoscience Australia (GSQ-GA) Geochronology project between July 2010 and June 2012. A total of 24 samples were analysed, in support of ongoing regional geoscientific investigations and mapping programs by the GSQ. This report documents detailed results for each sample individually, encompassing sample location and geological context, a description of the target mineral for geochronology, the relevant analytical data, and a brief geochronological interpretation. A summary of all results from this study is presented in Table i, and the sample locations are shown in Figure i. The analysed samples are from regions extending from the Eulo Ridge, an exposed part of the mainly concealed Thomson Orogen in south-western Queensland, to the Charters Towers and Greenvale regions in the north and the Mount Isa region in the north-west (Figure i). The work was carried out to provide an improved time framework for updated interpretations of the geology of selected parts of the state.

  • This Record presents data collected as part of the ongoing NTGS-GA geochronology project between July 2014 and June 2015 under the National Collaborative Framework (NCF). In total, five new U-Pb SHRIMP zircon and titanite geochronological results derived from four samples from the Arunta Region in the Northern Territory are presented herein (Table 1; Figure 1). Three samples were collected from JERVOIS RANGE in HUCKITTA1 in the eastern Arunta Region, and comprise metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks. The fourth sample analysed is an igneous rock from drillcore in TOBERMOREY.

  • This Record presents new zircon U Pb geochronological data obtained via Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe (SHRIMP) from rocks sampled within the Wau 1:100 000 map sheet area, which is located on the Papuan Peninsula in eastern Papua New Guinea. Exposure in the Wau Bulolo region comprises low-grade Mesozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Owen Stanley Metamorphics, which are intruded by the mid-Miocene Morobe Granodiorite batholith, and overlain by Pliocene sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Wau Basin. The map sheet area contains the Morobe Goldfield (from which more than 3.2 Moz of alluvial gold has been mined) and the Hidden Valley epithermal Au-Ag deposit (which has a total gold resource in excess of 3 Moz), and lies about 70 km south-southeast of the giant mid-Miocene Wafi-Golpu porphyry Cu-Au deposit (>26 Moz Au and 9 Mt Cu). The geochronological data in this Record were generated as part of a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) of Papua New Guinea in 2012. Four samples were analysed: two from the Pliocene Bulolo Volcanics and one from the Miocene Morobe Granodiorite to establish precise, accurate magmatic crystallisation ages, and one metasandstone from the Mesozoic Owen Stanley Metamorphics for detrital zircon provenance analysis. Sample locations, descriptions, and U Pb SHRIMP results are summarised in Table 1.1.

  • In this Record new U-Pb SHRIMP zircon results are presented from nine samples from western South Australia and eastern Western Australia. This geochronological study was undertaken to provide temporal constraints on the crystalline basement geology beneath the Nullarbor Plain, to assist in geological interpretation of a reflection seismic transect (13GA-EG1) between the Albany-Fraser Province in the west and the central Gawler Craton in the east. This seismic line transects a region in which the crystalline basement geology is entirely buried beneath Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks. Consequently, the age, tectonic evolution and mineral potential of the crystalline basement in this region is very poorly understood. The new results complement the very limited pre-existing geochronology data from the Coompana Province and Madura Province, and provide a basis for comparison of geological ages in these provinces with the geological histories reconstructed for the adjacent provinces of the Gawler Craton to the east and the Albany-Fraser Province to the west.

  • This Record presents new zircon U-Pb geochronological data, obtained using a Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP), and thin section descriptions for nine samples of plutonic and volcanic rocks of the New England Orogen, New South Wales. The work was carried out under the auspices of the National Geoscience Accord, as a component of the collaborative Geochronology Project between the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW) and Geoscience Australia (GA) during the reporting periods 2010/11 and 2011/12.

  • <p>The Mesoproterozoic Roper Group of the McArthur Basin has excellent petroleum potential, but its poorly constrained post-depositional history has hampered resource exploration and management. The Derim Derim Dolerite occupies an important position in the regional event chronology, having intruded the Roper Group prior to deformation associated with the ‘Post-Roper Inversion’ event. It was assigned a magmatic crystallisation age of 1324 ± 4 Ma (uncertainties are 95% confidence unless otherwise indicated) in 1997, based on unpublished Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe (SHRIMP) U-Pb analyses of dolerite-hosted baddeleyite from sample 97106010, collected from the Derim Derim Dolerite type locality in outcrop within the northwestern McArthur Basin. Herein, we refine these data via Isotope Dilution-Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (ID-TIMS) analysis of baddeleyites plucked from the SHRIMP grain-mounts, which yielded a precise mean 207Pb/206Pb date of 1327.5 ± 0.6 Ma. This date is significantly older than a baddeleyite U-Pb ID-TIMS date of 1313.8 ± 1.3 Ma recently obtained from dolerite ALT-05, sampled in Pacific Oil and Gas Ltd drillhole Altree 2, near the northern margin of the Beetaloo Sub-basin, and 200 km south of 97106010. This pair of results indicates that Derim Derim Dolerite magmatism spanned at least 10-15 Ma. Previously documented geochemical variation in Mesoproterozoic mafic rocks across the Northern Territory (such as the 1325 ± 36 Ma (2σ) Galiwinku Dolerite in the northern McArthur Basin, 1316 ± 40 Ma phonolites intruding the eastern Pine Creek Orogen, and 1295 ± 14 Ma gabbro in the Tomkinson Province) may reflect episodic pulses of magmatism hitherto obscured by the low precision of the available isotopic dates. <p><b>Citation:</b> Bodorkos, S., Yang, B., Collins, A.S., Crowley, J., Denyszyn, S.W., Claoue-Long, J.C., Anderson, J.R. and Magee, C., 2020 Precise U–Pb baddeleyite dating of the Derim Derim Dolerite: evidence for episodic mafic magmatism in the greater McArthur Basin. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

  • This Record presents new Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon results obtained under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Queensland–Geoscience Australia (GSQ–GA) National Collaboration Framework (NCF) geochronology project between July 2016 and June 2017. This Record presents results from six newly analysed samples, in support of ongoing regional mapping and geoscientific programs led by GSQ in the Georgetown, Coen and Cairns regions. Three magmatic samples were analysed from unnamed rhyolite dykes within the Georgetown region (Gilberton 1:250 000 sheet SE5416), two samples (one magmatic and one metasedimentary) from the Coen region(Coen SD5408), and one metasedimentary sample from the Cairns region (Innisfail SE5506). A summary of each sample is presented, each containing information on sample location and geological content, geochronology results, as well as a brief geochronological interpretation. <b>Bibliographic Reference:</b> Christopher J. Lewis, Courteney R. Dhnaram, Dominic D. Brown, Robert J. Bultitude, Vladimir A. Lisitsin. Summary of Results. Joint GSQ–GA Geochronology Project: Georgetown, Coen and Cairns regions, 2016–2017. <i>Queensland Geological Record</i><b> 2021/05</b>.

  • The EARTHTIME initiative has enabled improvements in high-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb geochronology, demonstrating SI-traceable calibrations with rigorous uncertainty estimation. In a similar fashion, the LA-ICP-MS U-Pb community have reassessed their uncertainty estimation and workflow to try to harmonise better practice in quantification and interpretation across the community. The SHRIMP community has a current imperative to rewrite its data handling software providing an opportunity to review ion-microprobe U-Pb workflow and uncertainty estimation methods. This work will provide the perfect platform to integrate SHRIMP U-Pb dating practices with more recent data handling approaches to ensure harmony and comparability of output between SHRIMP, LA-ICP-MS and ID-TIMS methods. SHRIMP and LA-ICP-MS data acquisition and processing appear to be very similar. Both methods are relative techniques, requiring calibration to matrix-matched primary reference materials analysed under the same conditions at the same time. Measurement uncertainties are similar, calibration requirements are similar and potential system drift has similar effects and impact on data and concomitant uncertainty estimation. For these and other reasons, we are interrogating SHRIMP and recently published LA-ICP-MS U-Pb data handling workflows to compare approaches, learn mutual lessons, and understand the uncertainty propagation requirements of each method such that a complete understanding of the comparability of U-Pb data obtained by the two methods can be ascertained. We will highlight results to date in describing the SHRIMP and LA-ICP-MS U-Pb data handling workflows in tandem allowing data comparison between the two methods to be properly quantified thereby enabling direct quantification and comparison with ID-TIMS reported ages. In this way, U-Pb geochronology will be a more rigorously applied tool from the highest spatial resolution to highest precision, expanding and building on the EARTHTIME initiative to date. This abstract was submitted to/presented at the 2017 Goldschmidt Conference (https://goldschmidt.info/2017/)