Deep seismic reflection profiling in the Archaen Northeast Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia: implications for crustal architecture and mineral potential  


Authors / CoAuthors

Goleby, B.R. | Blewett, R.S. | Champion, D.C. | Cassidy, K.F. | Jones, L.E.A. | Groenewald, P.B. | Henson, P. | Korsch, R.J.

Abstract

Deep-seismic reflection data across the Archaean Eastern Goldfields Province, northeastern Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia have provided information on the crustal architecture and on several of its highly mineralised belts. The seismic reflection data contain has images of several prominent crustal scale features, including an eastward thickening of the crust, subdivision of the crust into three broad layers, the presence of a prominent east dip to the majority of the reflections and the interpretation of three east-dipping crustal-penetrating shear zones. These east-dipping shear zones are major structures that subdivide the region into four terranes. Major orogenic gold deposits in the Eastern Goldfields Province are spatially associated with these major structures. The Laverton Tectonic Zone, for example, is a highly mineralised corridor that contains several world-class gold deposits plus many smaller deposits. Other non crustal-penetrating structures within the area do not appear to be as well endowed metallogenically as the Laverton structure. The seismic reflection data have also imaged a series of low-angle shear zones within and beneath the granite-greenstone terranes. Where the low-angle shear zones intersect the major crustal-penetrating structures, a wedge shaped geometry is formed. This wedge geometry forms a suitable fluid focusing geometry where upward to sub-horizontal moving fluids are focused and then distributed into the nearby complexly deformed greenstones.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

61012

Contact for the resource

  Custodian

 

  Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)  
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia

Keywords

  • External PublicationScientific Journal Paper
( Theme )
  • seismics
( Theme )
  • seismic sections
  • AU-WA
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Published_Internal

Publication Date

2004-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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Use - license

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unknown

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geoscientificInformation

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Unknown

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Extents

[-30.0, -27.0, 120.0, 126.0]

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