Reconstruction of Australia and Antarctica: evidence from granites and recent mapping

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Recent mapping in both Australia and Antarctica has refined the local stratigraphies, in a number of cases resulting in revisions of age ranges with the discovery of new fossils. Granite studies have provided an expanded data base of petrological, geochemical and isotopic parameters. Using all currently available geological data, we offer a reconstruction of the two continents. The key element in the reconstruction is the alignment of three terranes in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica (Wilson, Bowers and Robertson Bay) with three terranes in western Victoria, Australia (Delamerian, Grampians-Stavely and Stawell). Numerous similarities permit correlation of the terranes across continental boundaries. The alignment produces a fit essentially like that of Sproll and Dietz [1].
In detail, mismatches of the coastlines are improved by postulating movements of two microplates. In the reconstruction, Tasmania is shifted back along the Colac-Rosedale fault to a pre-breakup position approximately 160 km east of its present location. The resultant gap is filled by moving northern Victoria Land 225 km northward along a postulated strike-slip fault at the boundary between the western scarp of the Transantarctic Mountains and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin.
A model is proposed in which, at the initial stage of breakup, opening of the Tasman Sea was accompanied by westward movement of Tasmania and southward movement of northern Victoria Land, with a left-lateral, strike-slip fault at their mutual boundary. Once these two microplate fragments had reached their current positions on their parent plates, movement proceeded with the separation of Australia and Antarctica and continued opening of the Tasman Sea.

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