During the early to middle Palaeozoic, the northwest orientation was the main deformation features in Australia and Northern Carnarvon Basin. In Northern Carnarvon Basin, several sub-basins and Plateaus are separated by northwest oriented faults and basement highs. Cape Range Fracture Zone (CRFZ) separates the west side of Exmouth Plateau, the Long Island Fault System separates the southern boundary of Barrow Sub-Basin and Sultan Nose uplift separates the Barrow from Dumpier Sub-Basin (DAIM, 1998). During middle Palaeozoic, basin started extending to northeast direction and deformation and structures orientation shifted from the Northwest to the Northeast trend. These northeast structural features were inherited to the deformation pattern throughout Mesozoic. Intermittent rifting of Australia …show more content…
Another rifting phase started in the early Jurassic around Pliensbachian or Toarcian (Chongzhi et al., 2013; Geoscience, 2014; Tindale, Newell, Keall, & Smith, 1998). Exmouth, Barrow, Dampier and Beagle Sub-basins were created until Middle Jurassic (He, 2002; Tortopoglu, 2015) and oceanic crust was laid down to form the Argo Abyssal Plain in Late Jurassic around 164-160 Ma during the Callovian to Oxfordian then followed by the Gascoyne and Cuvier Abyssal Plain in Early Cretaceous around 125 Ma (Fullerton, Sager, & Handschumacher, 1989; Müller, Mihut, & Baldwin, 1998). Passive margin was established in North West Shelf. Rifting phase of the basin transformed into sagging phase post breakup thermal subsidence when Gondwana breakup took place during Valanginian early Cretaceous around 134Ma. During the Campanian late Cretaceous, rifting along the Australian southern margin triggered the basin inversions and wrench reactivation of basin structures on NW Shelf. These movements arose the Barrow Island above sea level and formed Novara, Resolution and Exmouth Plateau Arch in Barrow, Dampier Sub-Basins and Investigator Sub-Basin (Figure 1) (Longley et al., 2002; Sinhabaedya,
One of the major things noticeable from the cross section is that quite a few of the rock layers are over turned, where the older rock layers are above the newer rock layers. This is seen in the contact between the Quartz Monzonite of Papoose Flat and the Campito Formation which is also a disconformity. Next there is some fault zones separating the Camptio, Poleta, and Harkless formations. We then see some more overturned layers with the contacts between Saline Spring Valley Formation (lower and upper members) above the Mule Spring Formation along with some inferred folding. With a normal fault separating the inferred folding event, we see where the overturning occurs. In between the Cambrian layers we see Tertiary Basalt nonconformities also being folded, thus with that we know that the folding event was more recent than the formation of the Basalt. Next there is a large Basalt field with a spot of the Harkless formation. Again we see over tuning as the Basalt field ends there are the Devonian and Mississippian rock Layers on top of the basalt. Separating these overturned layers from the Harkless Formation and the Saline valley Formation (upper member), which are not overturned, is a thrust fault. From this information, there was a major stress event sometime after the Tertiary period causing the rock layers to fold and overturn. And from this stress event and from the folding, normal and thrust faults are formed. Finally we see that there were alluvial and landslide deposits from the Quaternary after the folding, faulting, and over
The Proterozoic Westboro Formation (ca. 800 Ma), composed of massive quartzites and interbedded schists, is interpreted as a passive margin assemblage deposited on Avalon before the microcontinent rifted from Gondwana. The Westboro experienced various pulses of deformation and metamorphism during the Proterozoic. Of notable interest are 1-to-3-meter wide, N-NE striking, shallow dipping mylonitic zones exposed in and around the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, MA. At one location blocks of eroded mylonite are contained in a Westboro debrite. A possible interpretation is that mylonites exposed along a rift-basin border fault were eroded and incorporated upper Westboro through mass gravity transport.
Neotectonism is express in different ways in the eastern Uplands of north Queensland, in Atherton and Chillagoe territory. Some are identify by magmas dating (e.g. Nulla Volcanic Region) to know youngest ages (Nulla Volcanic Region) while others hold ropy structure (pahoehoe). In Atherton territory, most recent Pleistocene (Eacham) basalt is openly exhibited. Other evidence of neotectonics in Eastern Upland are seen where the Lake George and Shoalhaven reverse fault offset Palaeozoic layers across Miocene.
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.
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
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
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
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
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 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
The Murray Darling basin is a huge environmental space in the inner of Southeastern Australia. Its name resulted from its two main rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. The basin is one of the most important agrarian areas in Australia.
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
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
Many things led up to the start of World War I. There was much tension between the countries of Europe for more than fifty years. There were immediate causes, and long-term causes. Some immediate causes were the assassination of the heir of Austria-Hungry, Germany declares war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, and Great Britain declares war on Germany. Some long-term causes or basic causes were imperialism, nationalism, and the arms race.