Northern Carnarvon Basin

The Slate Belt bioregion is nested within the Great Valley Section of the Valley and Ridge Province that was formed by thrust and fault folding during the Late Ordovician period through and Late Paleozoic era.(Bailey,1992; Geyer, 1979;Van Diver, 1990). During this time Taconian

To support the theory of continental drift is through topography, surveying the floors of oceans, charts of rock magnetism, and statistics on rock ages (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). At one time scientist believed that the deep ocean floors were flat; accumulating the sediment that progressively wore away from the prehistoric landmasses (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). However, they discovered steep-walled valleys and elevated highlands. This was evidences that just as the continents are transformed and are active, so to is the seafloor (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). The Mid- Atlantic Ridge, positioned in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, is recorded to be the longest mountain range on this planet. Volcanoes, lava flow, and earthquakes are a source of

Rodinia started to rift around 750 to 600 million years ago and the Iapetus Ocean opening up as seen in Figure 1, the Swift Run Formation with Grenville, volcanic debris and ash material produced the Catoctin Formation that contains flood basalts supporting Shenandoah. With modern day East Africa rift and Red Sea curst stretched, this allowed flood basalts and rhyolite seep through the ocean floor and eventually made its way to the surface.

Proof of volcanic activity related to the break-up of Australia and Antarctica is seen at Bunbury, which is located 150km south of Perth, at the point where the basalt is of early Cretaceous, also on the middle Jurassic Kangaroo Island. However, evidence of Cenozoic eruptions is only seen in Eastern Highland. All through the Cenozoic, hot spot volcanic event transpire (Sutherland et al., 1985). Most of these events follow the Miocene (Stephenson et al., 1980) with recent eruptions close to the southern and northern margin of volcanic zone at southeast of South Australia and north Queensland respectively.

The first deformation event (D1) resulted in folding of volcanic rocks in the Wabigoon and Wawa subprovinces (Hooper and Ojakangas, 1971; Hudleston, 1976; Hudleston et al., 1987; Jirsa et al., 1992) and locally within the Quetico subprovince (Bauer, 1985b). Most D1 folds in the Wawa terrane in MN rarely display axial-planar cleavage, with Bauer (1985b), Hooper and Ojakangas (1971), Hudleston (1976), and Jirsa et al. (1992) having identified cleavage (S1) development locally in the Vermillion greenstone belt (Peterson, 2001). In the Wabigoon terrane, D1 resulted in recumbent folding that overturned the stratigraphic sequence and the first regional schistosity (Poulsen et al., 1980). S1 is generally subparallel to the layering in the metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks, and a gneissic foliation attributed to D1 is well developed in gneissic domes (Czeck and Poulsen, 2010). Although D1 likely created significant thrust or oblique faulting, direct evidence

The Naracoorte caves provides plenty of information about the history during the Pleistocene era. In terms of a scientific understanding, Palaeontologists have excavated and dated many of the fossils in Naracoorte Caves and have reconstructed the skeletons of a number of the megafauna that inhabited the area so many years ago. This gives them a better understanding of the evidence supporting Australia’s changing environment, climate and fauna and how each of these contributing factors have played a major role in the extinction of these megafauna's. With the reasons provided, the protection of the Naracoorte caves is essential as the caves holds many scientific evidence and fascinating values as well as Australia's record of

This Lower Keg River member was initiated by a rapid increase in sea level elevation flooding the salt plains of the Contact Rapids. Campbell (1987) described the Lower member of a dark micritic limestone, in a somewhat “euxinic” environment, containing bitumen and fauna such as brachiopods, crinoids, corals, stromatoporoids and gastropods. The unit can be locally dolomitized with a maximum thickness of approximately 50m. The Upper Keg River member was deposited during the restriction of marine waters by the Presqu’ile Barrier reef into the Elk Point Basin (Campbell, 1987). The interior of the basin contains Upper Keg River pinnacle reefs, banks and platforms. Campbell (1987) noted the spatial differences in the type of carbonate deposition within sub-basins; areas from the Peace River Arch to southern Alberta show a fringing carbonate platform, while the Rainbow, Zama and Shekelie basins contained the majority of the

The South Brae oilfield is mainly Kimmeridgian to mid-Volgian in age, however on some accounts it may possibly be of Oxfordian (Turner et al, 1987). The oilfield is heavily developed along the western, fault-bounded margin of the South Viking Graben approximately 161 miles NE of Aberdeen flanking Fladen Ground Spur (see Fig.1). The Upper Jurassic rifting of the South Viking Graben encountered, pronounced movement along the western bounding fault as syn-rift extension proceeded (Harris & Fowler, 1987, Gregory et al, 2007). Syn‐tectonic deposition throughout the Jurassic ensued the formation of a distinct sediment wedge thinning eastwards into the basin, outlining the main phase of fault movement down the boundary fault (Roberts, 1991). As a result, the Brae oilfields are a series of

Moving on to Block Mountain, this mapping area has four main folds and six significant faulting components, all resulting from continued compressional tectonics. The oldest structure, which is the Sandy Hollow anticline, is a northward-plunging anticline that is similar in age to the eastern syncline underlying the

These Paleozoic rocks are steeply plunging sandstones and siltstones, with a little event of limestone at Lilydale - the Early Devonian Lilydale Limestone. The Silurian rocks were stored in profound water, while the Devonian rocks, which are exceptionally fossiliferous, appear to have been stored in shallower water. These Silurian and Devonian rocks were folded into a progression of anticlines

Stratigraphy: The Augustine-Seldovia arch, which is oriented east-west, transverse to the main structural trend of the basin, separates the forearc basin into two depocenters. (ADNR 2006). The northern depocenter in upper Cook Inlet is dominated by roughly 25,000 feet of Cenezoic strata. The southern depocenter in lower Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait contains a thinner Cenezoic section superimposed on top of 36,000 feet of Mesozoic strata.

The earth has been through a lot of changes throughout time. It used to be thought that the continents were locked in their positions and couldn’t move, but in 1915 Alfred Wagner came up with a theory about continental drift (Tarbuck and Lutgens, 2015). While unsure of the process that happened at the time, Wagner also came up with the idea that all the continents in existence today were once all connected as one giant continent known as Pangea. This idea is supported by the findings of similar rocks or fossils in multiple locations separated by large water bodies. Thanks to more tools and funding, the oceanic ridge system was found and by 1968, the theory of plate tectonics was introduced (Tarbuck and Lutgens, 2015). This theory

The Jurassic Period was the second half of the Mesozoic Era. It took place around 199.6 to 146.5 million years ago, following after the Triassic period and before the Cretaceous period. During this time period, the supercontinent known as Pangaea broke apart. The Northern half, called Laurentia and would later part into North America and Eurasia, was starting to split. The tearing of this part of the continent also started to make way for water passages that would soon be known as the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. Meanwhile, the southern half, Gondwana, started to drift in a more eastern direction, slowly pulling apart in order to begin the creation of Antarctica, Madagascar, India and Australia. A more western portion of Gondwana

Since1970, Muirshiel Country Park has been part of Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park which is situated in the River Calder Valley north of Lochwinnoch. The park is an area of general natural beauty with beautiful landscapes and great scenic views but people are allowed to live and work within the area. It may look remote but it has a purpose for human activity, as in the past the land has been used as a farm situated close to the current entrance, for field sports such as grouse shooting and more recently for barytes mining. The mine closed in 1969, just before the opening of the country park. (Clyde Muirshiel Park Authority [CMPA from now on], n.d.) The current use of the park is mainly recreational, with a small network of footpaths for walkers, cyclists, and educational groups. Other land uses include forestry, field sports, and small-scale agriculture. For this assignment we are imagining that a gold-bearing ore outcrops on Windy Hill just to the north of the country park.

Earthquake depth patterns: However, much like with the volcanoes, starting a little distance after 90 degrees longitude and to about 0 degrees latitude the earthquakes grow very dense and there is a combination of a few severe, some middling, and some small quakes. The earthquakes on the Australian plate are not all extremely severe however, the entire plate seems to be edged by severe,