Initial lead isotope ratios from Archean volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) and lode gold deposits and neodymium isotope model ages from igneous rocks from the geological provinces that host these deposits identify systematic spatial and temporal patterns, both within and between the provinces. The Abitibi-Wawa Subprovince of the Superior Province is characterized by highly juvenile lead and neodymium. Most other Archean provinces, however, are characterized by more evolved isotopes, although domains within them can be characterized by juvenile isotope ratios. Metal endowment (measured as the quantity of metal contained in geological resources per unit surface area) of VHMS and komatiite-associated nickel sulfide (KANS) deposits is related to the isotopic character, and therefore the tectonic history, of provinces that host these deposits. Provinces with extensive juvenile crust have significantly higher endowment of VHMS deposits, possibly as a consequence of higher heat flow and extension-related faults. Provinces with evolved crust have higher endowment of KANS deposits, possibly because such crust provided either a source of sulfur or a stable substrate for komatiite emplacement. In any case, initial radiogenic isotope ratios can be useful in predicting the endowment of Archean terranes for VHMS and KANS deposits. Limited data suggest similar relationships may hold in younger terranes.

Over the last fifteen years, Geoscience Australia, through its Onshore Energy Security Program, in conjunction with Primary Industries and Resources South Australia (PIRSA), the Geological Survey of New South Wales (Industry & Investment NSW), the Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre, and the Predictive Mineral Discovery Cooperative Research Centre (pmd*CRC), has acquired several deep seismic reflection profiles, which, when combined, form an east-west transect about 870 km long in southeastern Australia. The seismic data vary from low-fold, dynamite-source to higher-fold, vibroseis-source data. The combined seismic profiles, from the western Eyre Peninsula to the Darling Basin, provide a near complete cross-section of the crust across the Gawler Craton, Adelaide Rift System, Curnamona Province, Koonenberry Belt and Darling Basin. The entire region is dominated by east-dipping faults, some of which originated as basin-bounding extensional faults, but most appear also to have a thrust sense of movement overprinting the extension. In the Gawler Craton, an inferred shallow, thin-skinned thrust belt occurs to the west of an inferred thick-skinned thrust belt. The boundary between the two thrust belts, the Kalinjala Mylonite Zone, was active at least during the Kimban Orogeny, with possible extensional movement at that time. The thrust movement possibly occurred during the ~1600 Ma Olarian Orogeny.

Summary of forward gravity and flexure modelling of the New Caledonia Trough to highlight temporal variations in lithospheric rigidity during its evolution.

As part of initiatives by the Australian and Queensland Governments to support energy security and mineral exploration, a deep seismic reflection and magnetotelluric survey was conducted in 2007 to establish the architecture and geodynamic framework of north Queensland. With additional support from AuScope, nearly 1400 km of seismic data were acquired along four lines, extending from near Cloncurry in the west to almost the Queensland coast.

The Georgina-Arunta deep seismic reflection line (09GA-GA1) has provided an image of the entire crust in this part of central Australia. At a first approximation, beneath the Neoproterozoic-Devonian sedimentary basins, the crust can be divided into four distinct regions, namely, the Aileron, Irindina and Davenport Provinces, and the Ooratippra Seismic Province. Each of these regions is separated from each other by major, crustal-scale faults. The observed crustal architecture has implications for geodynamic models for the evolution of the region, implying amalgamation of these crustal blocks in the Paleoproterozoic and major shortening and basin inversion in the Paleozoic.

Beginning in the Archean, the continent of Australia evolved to its present configuration through the accretion and assembly of several smaller continental blocks and terranes at its edges. Australia grew usually by convergent plate margin processes, such as arc-continent collision, continent-continent collision or through accretionary processes at subduction zones. The accretion of several island arcs to the Australian continent, through arc-continent collisions, played an important role in this process, and the geodynamic implications of some Archean and Proterozoic island arcs recognised in Australia will be discussed here.

Tholeiitic intrusion-hosted nickel sulphide deposits are highly sort exploration targets due to their potential size and co-products platinum-group elements and copper. The Norilsk-Talnakh (Russia), Voisey's Bay (Canada) and Jinchuan (China) deposits are world class examples. Although Australia holds the largest economic resources of nickel in the world, its nickel resources are mainly sourced from komatiitic-hosted and lateritic deposits. Known resources of tholeiitic intrusion-hosted nickel sulphides are relatively small, with Nebo-Babel and Nova-Bollinger in Western Australia the most significant examples. Given the abundance of tholeiitic igneous rocks in Australia, this important deposit type seems to be under-represented when compared to other continents with similar geology. To support the discovery of world class nickel sulphide deposits in Australia, Geoscience Australia has recently undertaken a continental-scale GIS-based prospectivity analysis for tholeiitic intrusion-hosted deposits across Australia. This analysis exploits a suite of new relevant digital datasets recently released by Geoscience Australia. For example, the analysis utilises the Australian Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events GIS Dataset which places mafic and ultramafic rocks across Australia into 74 coeval magmatic events based on geochronological data. Whole rock geochemistry of mafic and ultramafic rocks has been used to differentiate between magma series and discriminate between different magmatic events and units within those events. Other new datasets include crustal domain boundaries derived from both deep crustal seismic data and neodymium depleted mantle model age data as well as a coverage of the minimum thickness of mafic rocks in the crust derived from the Australian Seismogenic Reference Earth Model. This continental-scale GIS-based nickel sulphide prospectivity analysis uses a mineral systems approach to map the four essential components of ore-forming mineral systems; (1) sources of ore constituents, (2) crustal and mantle lithospheric architecture, (3) energy sources or drivers of the ore-forming system, and (4) gradients in ore depositional physico-chemical parameters. These four components are combined into a prospectivity map using weights-of-evidence GIS-based techniques, with the most prospective areas across the continent occurring where all components are present. The mineral systems approach allows for the identification of a much larger footprint than the deposit itself, and can be applied to greenfield and/or undercover areas. The results highlight areas that contain known tholeiitic intrusion-hosted nickel sulphide deposits, such as the Musgrave and Pilbara Provinces, as well as regions that do not contain any known deposits, such as the southern margin of the Arunta Province in the Northern Territory, the Mount Isa Province in Queensland and the Paterson Province in Western Australia.

Interpretation of the Capricorn deep seismic reflection survey has provided images which allow us to examine the geodynamic relationships between the Pilbara Craton, Capricorn Orogen and Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. Prior to the seismic survey, suture zones were proposed at the Talga Fault, between the Pilbara Craton and the Capricorn Orogen, and at the Errabiddy Shear Zone between the Yilgarn Craton and the Glenburgh Terrane, the southernmost component of the Capricorn Orogen. Our interpretation of the seismic lines indicates that there is a suture between the Pilbara Craton and the newly-recognised Bandee Seismic Province. Our interpretation also suggests that the Capricorn Orogen can be subdivided into at least two discrete crustal blocks, with the interpretation of a suture between them at the Lyons River Fault. Finally, the seismic interpretation has confirmed previous interpretations that the crustal architecture between the Narryer Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton and the Glenburgh Terrane consists of a south-dipping structure in the middle to lower crust, with the Errabiddy Shear Zone being an upper crustal thrust system where the Glenburgh Terrane has been thrust to the south over the Narryer Terrane.

The Archean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia, is not only one of the largest extant fragments of Archean crust in the world, but is also one of the most richly-mineralised regions in the world. Understanding the evolution of the craton is important, therefore, for constraining Archean geodynamics, and the influence of such on Archean mineral systems. The Yilgarn Craton is dominated by felsic intrusive rocks - over 70% of the rock types. As such these rocks hold a significant part of the key to understanding the four-dimensional evolution of the craton, providing constraints on the nature and timing of crustal growth, the role of the mantle, and also the timing of important switches in crustal growth geodynamics. The granites also provide constraints on the nature and age of the crustal domains within the craton. Importantly, this crustal pre-history appears to have exerted a significant, but poorly understood, spatial control on the distribution of mineral systems, such as gold, komatiite-associated nickel sulphide and volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) base metal systems

Interpretation of deep seismic reflection profiling coupled with forward modelling of gravity and aeromagnetic data, new zircon U-Pb age dating and the interpretation of the basement geology beneath the southern margin of the Eromanga Basin has provided insights into the southern part of the underlying Thomson Orogen and its relationship with the Lachlan Orogen to the south. Our interpretations of these data suggest that the northern Lachlan and southern Thomson orogens possessed a similar history from the mid-Late Silurian through to the Carboniferous. Major older differences, however, are suggested by the presence in the southern Thomson Orogen of relics of a possible Neoproterozoic arc, of Late Ordovician turbidites, by the geophysical evidence for crustal thickening caused by elevation of reflective lower crustal metavolcanic rocks high into the crust on a low-angle, north-dipping detachment thrust, and by old K-Ar age dates in southwestern Queensland. The seismically-imaged, north-dipping, crustal-scale Olepoloko Fault corresponds to the surface expression of Thomson-Lachlan boundary, and reflects the dip-slip and strike-slip partial reactivation and short-cutting of an older fault, which occurred in the Carboniferous, and probably also in the latest Silurian and Early Devonian.