Faults of the Lapstone Structural Complex (LSC) underlie 100 km, and perhaps as much as 160 km, of the eastern range front of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. More than a dozen major faults and monoclinal flexures have been mapped along its extent. The Lapstone Monocline is the most prominent of the flexures, and accounts for more than three quarters of the deformation across the complex at its northern end. Opinion varies as to whether recent tectonism, or erosional exhumation of a pre-existing structure, better accounts for the deeply dissected Blue Mountains plateau that we see today. Geomorphic features such as the abandoned meanders at Thirlmere Lakes illustrate the antiquity of the landscape and favour an erosional exhumation model. According to this model, over-steepened reaches developed in easterly flowing streams at the Lapstone Monocline when down-cutting through shale reached more resistant sandstone on the western side of the LSC. These over-steepened reaches drove headward (westerly) knick point retreat, ultimately dissecting the plateau. However, a series of swamps and lakes occurring where small easterly flowing streams cross the westernmost faults of the LSC, coupled with over-steepened reaches 'pinned' to the fault zones in nearby larger streams, imply that tectonism plays a continuing role in the development of this landscape. We present preliminary results from an ongoing investigation of Mountain Lagoon, a small fault-bound basin bordering the Kurrajong Fault in the northern part of the LSC.

The Kangaroo Caves zinc-copper deposit in the Archaean Panorama District in the northern Pilbara Craton, Western Australia contains an Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 6.3 million tonnes at 3.3% zinc and 0.5% copper. The Kangaroo Caves area is characterised by predominantly tholeiitic volcanic rocks of the Kangaroo Caves Formation, which is overlain by turbiditic sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Soanesville Group. Zinc-copper mineralisation is hosted mainly by the regionally extensive Marker Chert, the uppermost unit of the Kangaroo Caves Formation, and structurally controlled by D1 synvolcanic faults. The upper area of the deposit is characterised by quartz-sphalerite ± pyrite ± baryte ± chalcopyrite, whereas the lower area contains mainly chlorite-pyrite-quartz-carbonate-sericite ± chalcopyrite ± sphalerite. Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses show that cobalt-nickel ratios in pyrite are significantly greater in the upper, zinc-rich area (median copper/nickel = 0.4) of the deposit than the lower, zinc-poor area (median copper/nickel = 5). Structural analysis of the Kangaroo Caves area combined with Leapfrog modelling of ore and trace element distribution shows that the deposit is predominantly an elongate sheet of zinc mineralisation (-1%), which plunges ~30° to the northeast and is approximately 1000 metres in length. The morphology of the Kangaroo Caves deposit was retained from its original formation, despite rotation during the D2 event. Variations in hydrothermal alteration assemblages, including the copper and nickel contents of pyrite within the deposit and underlying dacite, are interpreted to be the result of variations in the influx and mixing of seawater with upwelling volcanogenic fluids during zinc-copper mineralization. At the Kangaroo Caves area the cobalt-nickel ratio of pyrite can be used as an exploration vector towards high-grade zinc-copper mineralization.

This web service provides access to the Geoscience Australia (GA) ISOTOPE database containing compiled age and isotopic data from a range of published and unpublished (GA and non-GA) sources. The web service includes point layers (WFS, WMS, WMTS) with age and isotopic attribute information from the ISOTOPE database, and raster layers (WMS, WMTS, WCS) comprising the Isotopic Atlas grids which are interpolations of the point located age and isotope data in the ISOTOPE database.

This web service provides access to the Geoscience Australia (GA) ISOTOPE database containing compiled age and isotopic data from a range of published and unpublished (GA and non-GA) sources. The web service includes point layers (WFS, WMS, WMTS) with age and isotopic attribute information from the ISOTOPE database, and raster layers (WMS, WMTS, WCS) comprising the Isotopic Atlas grids which are interpolations of the point located age and isotope data in the ISOTOPE database.

Ongoing developments in geodetic positioning towards greater accuracies with lower latency are now allowing the measurement of the dynamics of the Earth's crust in near real time. However, in the Australian circumstance a sparsity of geodetic infrastructure has limited the application of modern, geodetic science to broader geoscience research programs. Recent enhancements to the Australian geodetic infrastructure, through the AuScope initiative, offer opportunities for research into refinement of geodetic accuracies, as well as their application to measuring crustal deformation.

Compressional deformation is a common phase in the post-rift evolution of passive margins and rift systems. The central west Western Australian margin, between Geraldton and Karratha, provides an excellent example of strain partitioning between inverting passive margin crust and adjacent oceanic and continental crust. The distribution of contemporary seismicity in the region indicates a concentration of strain release within the basins diminishing eastward into the cratons. Very few data exist to quantify uplift or slip rates, however this pattern can be qualitatively demonstrated by tectonic landforms which indicate that the last century or so of seismicity is representative of patterns of Neogene and younger deformation. Pleistocene marine terraces on the western side of Cape Range indicate uplift rates of several tens of metres per million years, with similar deformation resulting in sub-aerial emergence of Miocene strata on Barrow Island and elsewhere. In the southern Carnarvon Basin, marine strandlines of unknown age are displaced by a few tens of metres, indicating uplift rates an order of magnitude lower than further west. Relief production rates in the western Yilgarn Craton are lower still - numerous scarps (e.g. Mt Narryer) appear to relate individually to <10 m of displacement across Neogene strata. The en echelon arrangement of such features distinguish them from those representing strain concentration in the craton proper, where scarps are isolated and typically <5 m high. Quantitative analysis of time-averaged deformation preserved in the aforementioned landforms, including study of scarp length as a proxy for earthquake magnitude, has the potential to provide useful constraint on seismic hazard assessments in a region which contains major population centres and nationally significant infrastructure.

The contemporary crustal stress regime in south-eastern Australia can be traced back to the terminal Miocene. Increased coupling of the Australian and Pacific Plate boundary at this time resulted in regional-scale tilting, local uplift and erosion, and in the formation of unconformities in southern Australian basins. In the onshore Gippsland Basin the unconformity surface is overlain by an extensive sheet of fluvial sediment known as the Haunted Hill Formation (HHF). Open folds and flexures developed within the HHF over blind reverse and reverse oblique faults provide a record of deformation spanning much of the neotectonic period. The predominance of flexures and folds rather than discrete faulting at the surface complicates the assessment of slip rates over the last few seismic cycles. However, ages from an undeformed fill terrace bordering the Morwell River and crossing the Morwell Monocline suggest that it has been a minimum of 70 ka since the last deformation event on at least this structure. Stream profiles crossing the Snake Ridge, Yallourn and Rosedale Monoclines similarly reveal no evidence for recent tectonic displacement. Cosmogenic radionuclide (10Be and 26Al) burial ages of siliceous sediments sampled from tectonically uplifted HHF on the Yallourn, Morwell and Snake Ridge Monoclines provide constraint on the long-term evolution of these structures. Combined with stratigraphic and tectonic records from the offshore Gippsland Basin, these data provide a basis for informed seismic hazard assessment.

This web service provides access to the Geoscience Australia (GA) ISOTOPE database containing compiled age and isotopic data from a range of published and unpublished (GA and non-GA) sources. The web service includes point layers (WFS, WMS, WMTS) with age and isotopic attribute information from the ISOTOPE database, and raster layers (WMS, WMTS, WCS) comprising the Isotopic Atlas grids which are interpolations of the point located age and isotope data in the ISOTOPE database.

Neotectonic faulting and uplift has previously been described from field evidence in higher relief erosional areas in far northwest NSW. In this study, airborne electromagnetics (AEM) and high resolution LiDAR datasets were used to identify buried neotectonic features in the Lower Darling Floodplain and adjacent lowlands. The AEM data (acquired over an area of 7,500 sq km and validated by 100 new boreholes) reveal that the top surface of the ?Late Pliocene to Pleistocene Blanchetown Clay, a widespread lacustrine fine grained unit deposited in palaeo Lake Bungunnia, has an undulating to sharply offset surface. Gridding of closely spaced points on AEM flight line sections suggests that it has been affected by local warping and faulting, as well as regional tilting due to basin subsidence or margin uplift. Local relief reaches 20m, with small highs and lows apparently controlled by networks of closely spaced intersecting faults that are mostly expressed as warps in the near surface. Across the entire area, the top of the Blanchetown Clay varies in elevation from 20 to 80 m AHD. Some of the up-warped areas are associated with local landscape highs, but most structures have no apparent surface expression. However, the Darling River and its anabranches (Talyawalka, Charlie Stones and Tandou Creeks, and the Great Darling Anabranch) follow zones of local structural lows, and some of the interpreted faults are echoed by linear river reaches and terrace edges interpreted from LiDAR DEM and satellite imagery. Geomorphic mapping and dating of scroll-bar sediments suggest that the main course of flow of the Darling River system has previously flipped between two preferred courses (the modern Darling, and a course following Talyawalka Creek/Tandou Creek/Redbank Creek/Great Darling Anabranch). This newly discovered structural control explains why the Lower Darling channel has apparently not migrated across the entire floodplain.

Abstract: Compressional deformation is a common phase in the post-rift evolution of passive margins and rift systems. The central-west Western Australian margin, between Geraldton and Karratha, provides an excellent example of a strain gradient between inverting passive margin crust and adjacent continental crust. The distribution of contemporary seismicity in the region indicates a concentration of strain release within the Phanerozoic basins which diminishes eastward into the cratons. While few data exist to quantify uplift or slip rates, this gradient can be qualitatively demonstrated by tectonic landforms which indicate that the last century or so of seismicity is representative of patterns of Neogene and younger deformation. Pleistocene marine terraces on the western side of Cape Range indicate uplift rates of several tens of metres per million years, with similar deformation resulting in sub-aerial emergence of Miocene strata on Barrow Island and elsewhere. Northeast of Kalbarri near the eastern margin of the southern Carnarvon Basin, marine strandlines are displaced by a few tens of metres. A possible Pliocene age would indicate that uplift rates are an order of magnitude lower than further west. Relief production rates in the western Yilgarn Craton are lower still - numerous scarps (e.g. Mount Narryer) appear to relate individually to <10 m of displacement across Neogene strata. Quantitative analysis of time-averaged deformation preserved in the aforementioned landforms, including study of scarp length as a proxy for earthquake magnitude, has the potential to provide useful constraints on seismic hazard assessments in a region containing major population centres and nationally significant infrastructure.