Footprints of the Alice Springs Orogeny preserved in far northern Australia: an application of multi-kinetic thermochronology in the Pine Creek Orogen and Arnhem Province  

Authors / CoAuthors

Nixon, A.L. | Glorie, S. | Collins, A.S. | Whelan, J.A. | Reno, B.L. | Danišík, M. | Wade, B.P. | Fraser, G.L.

Abstract

The Precambrian Pine Creek Orogen and Arnhem Province represent two of the oldest basement terrains in northern Australia and are often considered to be devoid of major tectonic or deformational activity since the cessation of regional metamorphism in the Paleoproterozoic. A major caveat in the current hypothesis of long lived structural inactivity is the absence of published low temperature thermochronological data and thermal history models for this area. Here we report the first apatite U–Pb, fission track and (U–Th–Sm)/He data for igneous samples from both the Pine Creek Orogen and Arnhem Province, complemented with apatite geochemistry data acquired by electron microprobe and laser ablation mass spectrometry methods, and present detailed multi-kinetic low temperature thermal history models. Low-temperature thermal history models for the Pine Creek Orogen and Arnhem Province reveal a distinct phase of denudation coeval with the Paleozoic Alice Springs Orogeny, suggesting that this orogenic event impacted a larger area of the Australian crust than previously perceived. Minor localised Mesozoic thermal perturbations proximal to the Pine Creek Shear-Zone record evidence for Mesozoic reactivation contemporaneous with modelled mantle driven subsidence and the onset of sedimentation in the Money Shoal Basin, while the Arnhem Province samples demonstrate no evidence of Mesozoic thermal perturbations. <b>Citation:</b> Angus L. Nixon, Stijn Glorie, Alan S. Collins, Jo A. Whelan, Barry L. Reno, Martin Danišík, Benjamin P. Wade, Geoff Fraser; Footprints of the Alice Springs Orogeny preserved in far northern Australia: an application of multi-kinetic thermochronology in the Pine Creek Orogen and Arnhem Province. <i>Journal of the Geological Society</i> 2020;; 178 (2): jgs2020–173. doi: https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-173

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document

eCat Id

144398

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Keywords

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

• GEOLOGYEARTH SCIENCESGeochronologyGEOCHEMISTRY

( Place )

• Pine Creek Orogen

( Place )

• Arnhem Province

( Discipline )

• fission track thermochronology

• Published_External

Publication Date

2024-04-22T01:03:07

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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All rights reserved    

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Status

completed

Purpose

Report thermochronology data and interpretations across the northern part of the Northern Territory

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asNeeded

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geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Journal of the Geological Society Volume 178 173

Lineage

Data reported in this journal paper were collected at University of Adelaide, as part of a PhD project by the first author (Angas Nixon) as part of the MinEx CRC. GA involvement in this project was to provide advice throughout the project, and access to rock samples from GA's repository.

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Extents

[-17.00, -10.00, 130.00, 137.00]

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Spatial Resolution

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