The biostratigraphic information from the last remnants of the Tethys Seaway in northern Pakistan was used to date the cessation of marine sedimentation as a result of the closure of the eastern Tethys Seaway and to give a minimum time for the India–Asia collision. The current detailed biostratigraphic investigations of the Eocene Kohat Formation in the Kohat Basin divulged that the rock unit in the

This study presents two chemical abrasion-thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (CA-TIMS) U–Pb zircon ages from tuffs as well as palynostratigraphic results from the embracing sedimentary succession of the Orallo Formation, Surat Basin, Queensland. Samples were taken from two Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) stratigraphic holes, GSQ DRD 26 and GSQ Roma 2. Palynological results assign the upper

Detrital zircon U–Pb ages are reported from the Haast Schist in western Otago and Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand. The majority are from the Aspiring Lithological Association in Otago, which intervenes between Caples Terrane and Rakaia Terrane protoliths. These indicate provenances similar to those in established Jurassic and Late Triassic sandstones of the Waipapa Composite Terrane in the North

Abstract We present a new geological map of Warrumbungle Volcano created from volcanic facies field mapping, new geophysical, geochemical and geochronological data as well as data from previous studies. Field mapping and petrography defined 19 volcanic and two mixed volcanic--sedimentary facies. Facies identification and distribution in conjunction with geochemical analyses indicate an early shield-forming

The Flinders Ranges in South Australia mainly comprise folded Neoproterozoic to Cambrian sedimentary rocks of the Adelaide Geosyncline, with local inliers of its Paleo–Mesoproterozoic igneous and metamorphic basement. A widely varied range of exceptional geological features is displayed in the rocks of the ranges and forms the basis of a proposal for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Serial Property

This study presents new geochemical and mineralogical data collected on 13 drill holes across the South Australian part of the Eromanga Basin, with a focus on the Lower Cretaceous Cadna-owie Formation, Bulldog Shale, Coorikiana Sandstone and Oodnadatta Formation. Mineralogical and geochemical data are used to determine the provenance of the sediments along with the paleoenvironments at the time of

Multi-disciplinary exploration methods are used to explore for possible ore deposits in the Sonqor area, Iran, which lies within the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone, and contains significant iron, copper and gold mineralisation. Hydrothermal alteration was mapped using field, remotely sensed, geophysical and geochemical data as well as Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus,

The northern Bowen Basin in eastern Australia was affected by the middle Permian–Late Triassic Hunter--Bowen Orogeny, but the effect of the post-orogenic deformation events is less well understood. 2D seismic surveys and field observations were utilised to the east of Moranbah to understand structural style and reactivation in the northern Bowen Basin. Large-scale faults include the Daunia and New

In this study, we investigate the geochronology, geochemistry, zircon Lu–Hf isotopes and Sr–Nd isotopes of mafic–intermediate intrusive rocks in the Naxiguole area of the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt (EKOB), northwest China. Zircon U–Pb dating yields formation ages of 254.8 ± 1.2 Ma for gabbros and 251.9 ± 1.3 Ma for gabbrodiorites, suggesting that the mafic–intermediate intrusive rocks were formed in

Hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal resources have great development potential and prospects, owing to their wide distribution and high thermal storage temperature. HDR resources are abundant in China, but their exploration and exploitation remain in the early stages. The Yishu fault zone in Shandong Province in eastern China is in a high-temperature geothermal zone of the Pacific Rim. Three craters and

The geological research and exploration evaluation of marine–continental transitional shale gas are lagging behind the rapid development of marine and continental shale-gas resources in China. To investigate the shale-gas potential of the lower Permian Shanxi and Taiyuan formations in the southern North China Basin, a series of measurements on representative core samples were conducted to characterise

This study reports on the recent sedimentological and palynological analysis of the rock unit outcropping at the road between Timika and Tembagapura from KM 73 to KM 92, Papua, Indonesia. The unit has been previously regarded as being late Proterozoic to Permian in age. Sedimentary facies analysis suggests a non-channelised deep-lacustrine slump and debris-flow dominated environment consists of delta

The Zhaxikang Sb–Pb–Zn–Ag deposit is the only super-large deposit in the North Himalayan Metallogenic Belt, but its genesis is debated. Genetic models include hot springs, magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and sedimentary exhalative overprinted by hydrothermal fluids. Here, we present sulfur isotopic data to constrain the genetic models for this deposit. The δ34SV-CDT values of sulfides in the first pulse

Slivers of mixed and metamorphosed ultramafic, mafic and sedimentary rocks crop out within the Eocene high pressure-low temperature metamorphic complex of northern New Caledonia. These units consist of: (1) slices of the serpentinite sole of Peridotite Nappe (upper plate), which characteristically contain fragmented supra-subduction dykes; (2) Intermediate Mélange units composed of elements of the

Abstract The Mesoproterozoic Roper Group of the McArthur Basin has excellent petroleum potential, but exploration has been hampered by poor constraints on its post-depositional history that has compromised understanding of the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the basin. The Derim Derim Dolerite occupies an important position in the event chronology of the McArthur Basin, having intruded the Roper

Multiple samples taken across the strike of conformable syn-depositional amphibolite (meta-dolerite) bodies in the Willyama Supergroup, Broken Hill, showed that all exhibit chemical variation, mostly consistent with igneous fractionation. The fractionation trends are characterised by very significant reduction in MgO, Ni and Cr from base to top of individual sills, increase in Zr, and less regular

The early tectonic history of the Eastern Goldfields Terrane (EGT) is poorly understood, but in places ca 2800 Ma mafic–ultramafic sequences are conformably overlain by ca 2720–2670 Ma sequences (e.g. Leonora and Laverton districts), suggesting minimal early deformation. The first significant angular unconformities occur at the base of the ca 2670–2655 Ma late basins and indicate that deformation was

The Jurassic–Cretaceous Great Artesian Basin is the most extensive, and largest volume, sedimentary feature of continental Australia. The source of its mud-dominated Cretaceous infill is attributed largely to contemporary magmatism along the continental margin to the east, but the source of its Jurassic infill, dominated by quartz sandstone, remains unconstrained. This paper investigates the question

There is significant economic interest in the Murray Basin of southeastern Australia as it is proving to be a major heavy mineral sands (HMS) province that will be one of Australia’s major source for production of rutile, zircon and ilmenite. The distribution and provenance of HMS resources in the Murray Basin is poorly understood because of its huge size, limited exploration and the complex depositional

Four oroclinal structures have been identified from structural, magnetic and gravity trends across a Carboniferous continental arc, forearc basin [Tamworth Belt (TB)] and conjugate accretionary complex in the southern New England Orogen (SNEO) of eastern Australia. None of the structures has yet been confirmed conclusively by paleomagnetism as oroclinal. Ignimbrites are common within the forearc basin

In Australian stratigraphic nomenclature, the concept of granitic rock suites has been in formal use for over a decade. The basis for this suite classification of granitic rocks is inconsistent and, in eastern Australian usage, unsound on several levels. We also note that the approach used in Western Australia is different. Granitic intrusions are probably not truly amenable to any strict, comprehensive

Two north–south-trending belts of high-temperature–low-pressure (HTLP) sub-regional metamorphism have been identified in the New England Orogen of eastern Australia. Metamorphic complexes in the ∼1300 km long Early-Permian Inland belt have ages ca 300–290 Ma, and those of the ∼400 km long Mid-Permian Coastal belt ca 275–270 Ma. These periods correspond to the beginning and end of an extended (early–mid

This paper summarises current knowledge on metamorphism within the entire New England Orogen (NEO) of eastern Australia. Rocks recording metamorphic assemblages characteristic of each of the three metamorphic facies series (high, medium and low P/T) have been identified within the orogen. These include high P/T blueschists and eclogites, mid P/T orogenic metamorphism and low P/T contact aureoles and

This study evaluates the accuracy of generating pseudo-capillary pressure curves from laboratory nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis and NMR wireline log data by comparing threshold pressures and curve characteristics to rock-derived mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) analysis. Accurate production of pseudo-capillary pressure curves from NMR data could negate or reduce the need for expensive

The fossiliferous lower Cambrian (Series 2) successions along the north coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia—known collectively as the Kangaroo Island Group—can be divided into two main areas: a western succession located between Snelling Beach and Smith Bay, which comprises the Mt McDonnell Formation (base), Stokes Bay Sandstone and Smith Bay Shale; and an eastern succession that extends from

There is an ongoing debate about the evolution and geological significance of sediments deposited during the Upper Devonian period in the Wutong Formation on the northern margin of Yangtze Plate. Although the deposition of the Wutong Formation is reported to have coincided with the period of global sea-level changes, the sedimentary record has not been clearly interpreted. We utilise the lithofacies

The Charters Towers Province, of the northern Thomson Orogen, records conversion from a Neoproterozoic passive margin to a Cambrian active margin, as characteristic of the Tasmanides. The passive margin succession includes a thick metasedimentary unit derived from Mesoproterozoic rocks. The Cambrian active margin is represented by upper Cambrian–Lower Ordovician (500–460 Ma) basinal development (Seventy

In this paper, we summarise advancements in top-of-hole sensing achieved within the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET CRC). It was demonstrated that the drill fines, which were previously discarded, show high potential to act as a representative sample media of the lithologies intersected by the drill hole and can be successfully used for analysis in real time. The Lab-at-Rig®

Sediments comprising the Radium Ridge Breccia, a stratigraphic unit recognised within the Mesoproterozoic Mount Painter Inlier, are now re-interpreted as Lower Cretaceous (previously interpreted to be Paleozoic) periglacial deposits with associated glacial and pro-glacial facies that extend into adjacent Eromanga Basin sediments. The interpretation is based on distinctive periglacial, glacial and pro-glacial

Abstract Two spectacular cliff lines occur along Australia’s south and west coasts: the Great Southern Scarp (new name) and the Zuytdorp Cliffs. Detailed measurements of their length show that they are exceptionally long and unusually continuous. The Great Southern Scarp is the southern edge of the Nullarbor Plain’s Bunda Plateau; it is cut into shallow marine sediments and extends for 820 km. Once

Silicified fossil macrofloras of the Willalinchina Sandstone, at Stuart Creek in the Billa Kalina Basin of northern South Australia, are most likely early Miocene–early Pliocene with preference for the younger age, based on reinterpretation of published evidence including basin stratigraphy, paleogeography, isotopic and other dating. The macrofloras include Eucalyptus and occur in fluvial channel sandstones

A convergence of climate, paleolatitude, basin evolution, water depth and seawater chemistry conditions, favourable for carbonate precipitation and preservation, facilitated initiation and sustained growth of the ∼350 m-thick Arkaroola carbonate reef, part of the Balcanoona Formation, during the Cryogenian interglacial in South Australia’s northern Flinders region. The reef is distinguished by its

Quaternary alluvial and colluvial sediments infill major river valleys and form alluvial fans and colluvium-filled bedrock depressions on the range fronts and within the Mount Lofty Ranges of southern Australia. A complex association of alluvial successions occurs in the Sellicks Creek drainage basin, as revealed from lithostratigraphy, physical landscape setting and optically stimulated luminescence

The presence of deformation bands in Upper Cretaceous–Pleistocene sediments of the St Vincent and Lake Eyre basins, South Australia supports the occurrence of intraplate normal and reverse faulting in this region throughout the Cenozoic. Current tectonic models for the development of this region lack structural evidence and underestimate the role and influence of extensional tectonics in the Cenozoic

Four economic porphyry Cu–Au deposits and several prospects have been investigated in the Northparkes district, part of the Ordovician to early Silurian Junee–Narromine Belt of the Macquarie Arc, New whole-rock geochemical data from the Northparkes porphyry Cu–Au district, NSW, indicate that the mineralising intrusive complexes exhibit distinct arc signatures that are transitional from high-K calc-alkaline

(2020). Geology of the Acropolis prospect, South Australia, constrained by high-precision CA-TIMS ages. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences: Vol. 67, No. 5, pp. 699-716.

Review and analysis of 1332 gas chromatography (GC) n-alkane traces of oils from the Cooper and Eromanga basins indicate the shape of any GC trace profile is primarily controlled by the degree of organic maturity (early, peak or late) at which the oils were expelled from the parent source rock, rather than indicating the depositional environment, and hence organic composition, of that source rock.

The shape and structural development of the box-like Parrabel Dome (PD) within the Hastings Block is poorly understood because it has only been weakly cleaved, complexly folded and extensively faulted in comparison to the adjoining blocks. Better characterising this block will provide important controls on the tectonics of the southern New England Orogen. The structural development of the PD and southern

(2020). How thermal maturity analysis supports stratigraphic restoration in heavily faulted fluvial outcrops: a case study on Strzelecki Group outcrops, West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences: Vol. 67, No. 5, pp. 749-757.

A first pass workflow for placing cover sequence materials into four broad lithological groups using A–CNK–FM (Al2O3–CaO + Na2O + K2O–Fe2O3+MgO) and A–CN–K (Al2O3–CaO + Na2O–K2O) ternary diagrams in conjunction with the SiO2 vs Al2O3, Fe2O3 and CaO plus the Ca versus Sr XY diagrams has been derived from lithological logging and laboratory whole-rock geochemistry of 2346 samples. These lithological

In the Brachina–Bunyeroo area of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, the lower Cambrian Hawker Group and the overlying Billy Creek Formation, are affected by two clearly defined fault systems. The southern, the Manga Fault System, was initially a synsedimentary fault-flexure. Movement commenced in post-lower Wilkawillina Limestone time and produced a fault-flexure zone separating a depocentre to

The presence of a trilobite, assigned to Pagetia cf. edura, from the Coobowie Limestone in the Port Julia-1A drillhole on Yorke Peninsula indicates that sedimentation in the Stansbury Basin, and probably also in the Arrowie Basin, did not terminate until at least the Wuliuan (middle Cambrian, Templetonian). It further indicates that the folding of the Delamerian Orogeny did not commence until at least

Stratigraphic investigations, supported by palynological dating, detrital zircon and monazite dating, and quartz grain micromorphology were undertaken of the Early Cretaceous strata around the southern margin of the Eromanga Basin where they onlap older rocks of the northern Flinders Ranges. The presence of a tillite within the Early Cretaceous Cadna-owie Formation and another in the Trinity Well Sandstone

Geological mapping in 1970 of lower Cambrian outcrop in the eastern Flinders Ranges of South Australia included the description and naming of the Moorowie Formation, representing the uppermost Hawker Group. The mapping is supported by 885 m of measured sections. An early Cambrian regressive-marine shelf-margin succession is described, from the massive Wilkawillina Limestone (base), the grey laminated

The ‘rim dolomite’ of South Australia’s Central Flinders Ranges is a prominent ridge-forming, layered dolomitic and siliceous unit. The rim dolomite is interpreted to be a lateral caprock found exclusively at the salt–sediment interface between the Patawarta diapir and the Ediacaran-aged Bunyeroo Formation. Lateral dolomite caprock is defined by the following field relationships: (1) the rugose dolomicrite

Lower Cambrian carbonates of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, feature a distinctive and laterally continuous hematitic horizon known as the Red Crust. Previously interpreted as a subaerial unconformity and major sequence boundary, we present conclusive paleontological and petrographic evidence that all occurrences of hematite are in the form of ferrimicrobialites constituting a component of the

The Flinders and Willouran ranges of South Australia contain over 20 examples of exposed allochthonous salt sheets and canopies comprising the Callanna Group megabreccias. The identification of a given diapir or portion of a diapir as allochthonous is well documented in some cases but more speculative in others. Here we summarise most of the examples, citing the evidence and arguments supporting allochthonous

Ten glacially related megaclasts, unique perhaps from a global perspective, have been identified in the MacDonald Corridor. Included are perhaps the largest known glacially-related basement-derived megaclasts, the Bimbowrie Megaclast measuring 1.25 km in exposed width. The MacDonald Corridor is the most outward of four half-grabens to the east of the main Adelaide Geosyncline rift complex. All four

The lower to ?middle Cambrian rocks (Terreneuvian, Series 2 and possibly Miaolingian) of the Arrowie Basin are exposed superbly in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. They comprise two major sedimentary packages: a lower carbonate-rich succession (Hawker Group and correlates) and an upper siliciclastic-dominated succession (Billy Creek Formation, Wirrealpa Limestone and Lake Frome Group). These

The Ediacara Member of the Flinders Ranges (South Australia) preserves body and trace fossils of the Ediacara biota. Fossils span five lithofacies representative of a range of shallow-marine environments and are preserved as in situ and transported material. Previous work has demonstrated a relationship between paleoenvironment and taxa at the Nilpena fossil site. We expand the analysis to include

Attenborites janeae gen. et sp. nov., is a new enigmatic fossil from the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia. Attenborites is a well-defined irregular oval to circular fossil preserved in negative hyporelief ranging in length from 4.5–24 mm. Preserved internal grooves and ridges, variable in number and running parallel to the long axis, typically converge towards one end of the

There are multiple tri-radially symmetric taxa among the Ediacara Biota, but the tri-radial body plan is unique to this time; taxa with threefold symmetry go extinct by the beginning of the Cambrian. Many of these taxa are included in a morphogroup referred to as Trilobozoa or Triradialomorpha. Abundant specimens of these tri-radial taxa exist at the Nilpena National Heritage Ediacara fossil site and

Here we describe a new fossil, Obamus coronatus gen. et sp. nov., from the Ediacara Member of the Rawnsley Quartzite. O. coronatus is preserved in negative hyporelief and is defined by an overall torus shape produced by a series of arch-shaped spiral grooves. Commonly, a circular to ovate raised inner portion is preserved. Both taphonomic and size-related morphological variability of this new taxon

We present findings from the newly discovered fossiliferous bed, TB-ARB, from the Ediacara Member exposed at the National Heritage Site, Nilpena Station, west of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. TB-ARB contains Ediacaran fossils, some of which are rare, remarkably preserved as casts in fine-grained sandstone with little evidence for taphonomic disturbance. Here we demonstrate that, despite extraordinary

(2016). Erratum. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. Ahead of Print.