Conjoint Associate Professor Robin Offler

A tectonic mélange containing blueschists and eclogites, Middle Ordovician mid-ocean ridge basalt, cherts, and clastic sediments occurs at Port Macquarie in the southern New England Orogen, Australia. The clastics are quartz-poor and are dominated by mafic volcanic and fragmented plagioclase clasts; felsic volcanic clasts are less common. They exhibit erosional bases, graded bedding, load structures, and lithologies ranging from laminated mudstones to pebbly sandstones. Based on these features, they are interpreted as turbidites. During subduction, these turbidites were deformed and metamorphosed under prehnite¿pumpellyite and lower greenschist facies conditions. Geo-chemically, they have a calc-alkaline, intra-oceanic arc signature; show no recycling; and have been derived from a provenance dominated by mafic volcanic rocks of basaltic-andesite composition. Further, chemical index of alteration (44¿69) and Index of Compositional Variability (0.8¿2.4) data reveal they show little weathering and are immature. The lack of weathering of rocks in a location where tropical climatic conditions existed is attributed to extreme erosion associated with a dynamic setting resulting in rapid transportation of the sediments to the fore arc basin and subsequently to the trench. As a consequence, little time was available for weathering to take place. The detritus in the turbidites is thought to have been derived from Late Ordovician volcanics in the Macquarie Arc and fore arc basin sequences of the Murrawong Formation. The cherts with which they are associated record both a continental and oceanic arc geochemical signature.

It is well documented that sediments record geochemical signatures that reflect the composition and tectonic setting of the rocks providing the detritus for them. This is true of the turbidites in the Nambucca Block that record compositions that vary from basaltic to rhyodacitic but are dominantly andesitic to dacitic. They show chondrite and N-MORB patterns, characteristic of calc-alkaline, continental arc rocks, namely light REE (av. La/Yb) N = 6.3) and Th enrichment, Ti, Nb and Ta depletion, and substantial within plate components (Nb/Yb; 0.65¿5.16; x = 3.15). Rare occurrences of rocks with intra-oceanic island arc affinities and felsic volcanic rocks showing tectonic fabrics occur, indicating more distal sources contributed detritus. Most detritus in the turbidites has been derived from the calc-alkaline, continental rocks of the Keepit arc, some from the subduction¿accretion sequences of the Tablelands Complex. CIA [Al2O3/(Al2O3+Na2O + K2O + CaO)×100] values (48¿83; x = 68) indicate that erosion of these arc sequences occurred during glacial, temperate and humid conditions at different times. Further, index of chemical variability values (0.3¿1.85; x = 0.85) reveal a compositional maturity and a high percentage of clays in the source rocks suggesting a passive tectonic setting in which minimal uplift and extensive weathering took place.KEY POINTS Metasediments in the Nambucca Block record geochemical signatures typical of calc-alkaline, continental, arc rocks. Detritus in metasediments was derived from the Keepit arc and Tablelands Complex, southern New England Orogen. Source rocks were subjected to glacial, temperate and humid conditions at different times.

The Early Palaeozoic proto-Pacific Pacific margin of Gondwana was characterised by a huge turbidite submarine fan with abundant clastic detritus derived from unknown sources within Gondwana. These deposits are widespread in the Lachlan Orogen of southeast Australia and include the Ordovician Adaminaby Group. Here we show that the mudstones and sandstones of the Adaminaby Group have chemical compositions that indicate the detritus in them was derived from a felsic, continental source similar in composition to Post Archean Australian Shales (PAAS). Chondrite normalised REE patterns showing LREE enrichment, flat PAAS normalised patterns and elemental ratios La/Sc, Cr/Th, Cr/V, Th/Sc and Th/U, have been used to support this interpretation. The dominance of quartz, and to a lesser degree plagioclase and biotite in the sandstones, suggests that the source was mainly granodioritic to tonalitic in composition. Th/Yb and Ta/Yb ratios indicate that the source was probably calc-alkaline, continental and shoshonitic. In addition, the presence of detrital muscovite, low-grade metamorphic and felsic volcanic clasts, demonstrates that a low-grade metamorphic terrane and volcanic arc contributed to the detritus observed in the samples. The presence of well-rounded zircons and tourmalines, very high Zr contents, high Zr/Sc and higher Cr/V ratios in some samples particularly in the Shoalhaven River area, indicate that some of the detritus was recycled.SiO2 versus (Al2O3 + K2O + Na2O) plots suggest the source areas experienced conditions varying from humid/semi-humid to semi-arid. Textural features and weathering trends of samples from all locations follow a curved pathway on Al2O3 - (CaO* + Na2O) - K2O (ACNK) diagrams, and indicate that the clays formed from weathering had been K-metasomatised prior to penetrative deformation. Chemical indices of alteration (CIA) reveal that even the freshest sandstones are altered and others are moderately to strongly altered. Discrimination diagrams involving major, trace and REE strongly support a collisional/continental volcanic arc setting that was substantially eroded to produce the plutonic detritus observed in the sandstones. The collisional setting accords with that proposed previously by other authors who suggested that it developed during the Delamerian Orogeny, resulting in the uplifted source areas providing detritus that inundated the backarc and forearc sites of the Macquarie Arc. Some of the detritus, however, may have been derived from a continental arc that existed in the late Cambrian along the margin of the Ross Orogen. Based on palaeocurrent analyses in previous studies and shoshonitic signature of the detritus, it is proposed that the Cambrian volcanics along the eastern active margin of Gondwana provided much of the detritus in the Adaminaby Group. Zircons with the Grenvillian signature suggest that some detritus were also derived from the Ross Orogen.

Brittle failure is common in the Devonian to Permian rocks in the Northern Hastings Block (NHB) and is manifested by faults of different orientation and kinematic histories, but the timing of fault movement is not well defined. In this study, faults in the NHB were analysed with the map pattern of cross-cutting faults used to estimate the relative time of movement and relationship to other faults. We defined five episodes of faulting or fault reactivation that affected the NHB. The Yarras Fault System on the southwestern side of the NHB and the Parrabel Fault and related faults on the eastern side of the NHB are the two major fault systems responsible for transporting and rotating the NHB in the late Carboniferous. Faults on the eastern, northeastern and northern part of Parrabel Dome started and stopped moving after emplacement of the Hastings Block and before the intrusion of the Werrikimbe Triassic granitoids. We suggested that the movement on the major bounding faults is related to the accommodation of the NHB to the folding and cleavage development in the adjoining Nambucca Block, and is associated with the earliest part of the Hunter¿Bowen Orogeny. Limited dextral movement on the extensions of the Taylors Arm Fault System caused minor displacements in the northeastern part of the NHB during the Late Triassic. Some small faults cut the Triassic granitoids or Triassic Lorne Basin sediments indicating tectonic activity continued post-Triassic.

The Cambrian¿Ordovician Wagonga Group contains basalts at Melville Point and Barlings Beach, 20¿km south of Batemans Bay, New South Wales. At Melville Point, the succession has basal altered basalts overlain by chert and interbedded siliceous mudstone of the Wagonga Group, in turn overlain by turbidites and chert of the Adaminaby Group with a latest Cambrian to earliest Ordovician age. By contrast, at Barlings Beach, basalt is associated with highly disrupted chert (tectonic mélange), various slivers of mudstone and turbidites, and turbidites of the Adaminaby Group. Immobile elements in the basalts show consistent patterns that allow the magmatic affinity and tectonic setting to be determined in spite of pervasive hydrothermal alteration and subsequent lower greenschist facies metamorphism that accompanied strong folding and multiple foliation development. The Melville Point basalts show Ti/V ratios transitional between arc and MORB and therefore may have formed in either a forearc or backarc basin setting. However, these rocks have higher Ti/V ratios, LREE, Th and Nb than found in forearc basalts and are therefore considered to have formed in a backarc basin setting. In contrast to Melville Point, most basalts at Barlings Beach have a geochemical signature distinctive of ocean island settings like those reported from elsewhere in the Wagonga Group. We believe these rocks developed in a Cambrian backarc basin setting. In the Early to Middle Ordovician, much of the ocean basin was inundated by quartzose turbidites followed by basin destruction with accretion/underplating at a Late Ordovician¿early Silurian Benambran subduction zone and formation of the Narooma Accretionary Complex.

New geochemical, metamorphic, and isotopic data are presented from high-pressure metamorphic rocks in the southern New England Orogen (eastern Australia). Conventional and optimal thermobarometry are augmented by U-Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar phengite dating to define pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) histories for the rocks. The P-T-t histories are compared with competing geodynamic models for the Tasmanides, which can be summarized as (i) a retreating orogen model, the Tasmanides formed above a continuous, west dipping, and eastward retreating subduction zone, and (ii) a punctuated orogen model, the Tasmanides formed by several arc accretion, subduction flip, and/or transference events. Whereas both scenarios are potentially supported by the new data, an overlap between the timing of metamorphic recrystallization and key stages of Tasmanides evolution favors a relationship between a single, long-lived subduction zone and the formation, exhumation, and exposure of the high-pressure rocks. By comparison with the retreating orogen model, the following links with the P-T-t histories emerge: (i) exhumation and underplating of oceanic eclogite during the Delamerian Orogeny, (ii) recrystallization of underplated and exhuming high-pressure rocks at amphibolite facies conditions coeval with a period of rollback, and (iii) selective recrystallization of high-pressure rocks at blueschist facies conditions, reflecting metamorphism in a cooled subduction zone. The retreating orogen model can also account for the anomalous location of the Cambrian-Ordovician high-pressure rocks in the Devonian-Carboniferous New England Orogen, where sequential rollback cycles detached and translated parts of the leading edge of the overriding plate to the next, younger orogenic cycle.

Structural and K-Ar dating studies of gouge in N-S, NNE and E-W-trending faults in four locations in the Sydney-Hunter region are reported. The fault zones are manifest as joint swarms and highly brecciated zones containing gouge with authigenic illite produced as a result of fluid infiltration. Strike-slip movement accompanied by minor dip-slip, normal movement occurred on the NNE faults, with dip slip on N-S and E-W-trending faults. In this study, gouge from a NE-trending, steep, SE-dipping fault showing dip-slip movement at Cut 10, on the Hunter Expressway and from an E-W-trending, steep south-dipping, normal fault at the Westside Open Cut, Lake Macquarie have been analysed. K-Ar dating of illite and illite-smectite in fractions extracted from fault gouges in areas unaffected by a thermal overprint reveals ages varying from 166 to 119 Ma for the <2 µm and finer fractions, and a mean age of ca 120 Ma for the <0.4 µm fraction. In the Sydney area and the Westside Open Cut coal mine, Lake Macquarie, the ages obtained from similar size fractions both for the gouge and for the host rocks are younger (134-76 Ma; av. <0.4 µm = 111 Ma). The data indicate influence of a thermal overprint associated with subsurface magmas emplaced during the early stages of the rifting of eastern Gondwana during the early Cretaceous. © 2014 © 2014 Geological Society of Australia.