Authors / CoAuthors
Champion, D.C. | Smithies, R.H.
Abstract
Formed throughout some 40% of the earth's history (>2500 Ma), Archaean cratons now comprise <10% of the continents, but contribute disproportionately to the world's mineral wealth. Remnant Archaean terrains vary in age from fragments as old as 3.6 to 4.0 Ga in age (e.g., Isua - Greenland, Acasta's Slave Province), to more common younger cratons (3.6 to 2.5 Ga) of various sizes, the largest being the Superior Province (1,572,000 km2), which alone constitutes greater than 20% of the total exposed Archaean (Thurston, 1991). Better known Australian examples include the small but well exposed (3.6 Ga and younger) Pilbara Craton (45,000 km2), and the significantly larger, but poorly outcropping Yilgarn Craton (>600,000 km2), both in Western Australia. Granitic rocks form the main component of most Archaean Cratons (e.g., ~70% of the Yilgarn). They occur as syn-volcanic and younger intrusive units within volcano-sedimentary assemblages (greenstone belts), as intrusive components of batholiths, and as components of high-grade gneiss terrains. Their compositional range is extensive and reflects both short-lived or local tectonic processes as well as longer-term process that relate to regional or global evolution.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
48986
Contact for the resource
Custodian
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
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- GA PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
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- geochemistry
- ( Theme )
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- geology
- ( Theme )
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- plate tectonics
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- AU-WA
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2003-01-01T00:00:00
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unknown
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geoscientificInformation
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Extents
[-34.0, -20.0, 116.0, 124.0]
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