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Mafic volcanic rocks on King Island, Tasmania: evidence for 579 Ma break-up in east Gondwana
Citation
Meffre, S and Direen, N and Crawford, AJ and Kamenetsky, VS, Mafic volcanic rocks on King Island, Tasmania: evidence for 579 Ma break-up in east Gondwana, Precambrian Research, 135, (3) pp. 177-191. ISSN 0301-9268 (2004) [Refereed Article]
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2004.08.004
Abstract
The eastern coast of King Island in southeastern Australia exposes a thick, well-preserved sequence of latest Neoproterozoic volcanic, and related shallow intrusive rocks. These rocks are associated with shallow marine carbonates and siltstones and pass up into massive conglomerates representing a marine flooding event and unconformity, during continental break-up and subsequent volcanic passive margin formation. Unusual differentiated sills (Grimes Intrusive suite) with extreme internal variation (wehrlite to andesite compositions) intrude deformed Proterozoic metasediments of the Rodinian basement. A thin, basal tholeiitic basaltic volcanic unit (City of Melbourne Volcanics) is less contaminated than the underlying sills, and preceded eruption of a thick sequence of highly depleted picritic pillows, sub-aerial flows and hyaloclastites (Shower Droplet Volcanics). The picrite sequence is overlain by thick tholeiitic basalts and reworked volcanogenic conglomerates (Bold Head Formation) that show a strong compositional similarity to enriched mid ocean ridge basalts. Both the picrites and the upper tholeiitic basalts are not crustally contaminated and have an Nd-Sm isochron age of 579 ± 16 Ma with initial εNd of +4.2. The lithostratigraphy and range of compositions represented are analogous to early magmatism associated with continental break-up and volcanic passive margin formation, including voluminous Seaward Dipping Reflector Sequences, in the Mesozoic North Atlantic volcanic margins. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Geology |
| Research Field: | Igneous and metamorphic petrology |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences |
| UTAS Author: | Meffre, S (Professor Sebastien Meffre) |
| UTAS Author: | Direen, N (Dr Nicholas Direen) |
| UTAS Author: | Crawford, AJ (Professor Anthony Crawford) |
| UTAS Author: | Kamenetsky, VS (Professor Vadim Kamenetsky) |
| ID Code: | 32658 |
| Year Published: | 2004 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 55 |
| Deposited By: | Centre for Ore Deposit Research - CODES CoE |
| Deposited On: | 2004-08-01 |
| Last Modified: | 2011-11-25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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