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Timing of Mesoproterozoic tectonic activity in the northwestern Gawler Craton constrained by 40Ar/39Ar geochronology

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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An array of northeast-trending shear zones in the north-west Gawler Craton of South Australia has been implicated in widely disparate Proterozoic continental reconstructions. These shear zones are interpreted to have formed in response to sinistral transpression, and dissect the north-west Gawler Craton into several geological domains, each with contrasting metamorphic histories. New 40Ar/39Ar data provide age constraints for movement along these shear zones, and are interpreted to indicate that the Karari, Tallacootra and Coorabie Shear Zones were last active at not, vert, similar1450 Ma. Despite distinct differences in metamorphic grade, the various geological domains bounded by shear zones exhibit evidence for commonality in event histories prior to deformation at not, vert, similar1450 Ma, albeit at different crustal levels. This is interpreted to indicate that deformation at not, vert, similar1450 Ma was responsible for reshuffling of crustal blocks that were already adjacent, rather than amalgamation of exotic terranes. The new data also provide additional evidence for a widespread metamorphic and deformational event at not, vert, similar1530-1550 Ma across the north-western Gawler Craton. The timing of deformation at not, vert, similar1450 is not, vert, similar100 Ma younger than suggested in several published tectonic reconstructions and, importantly, is also significantly older than Grenvillian-age tectonism in adjacent provinces to the west and north.

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Field Value
Title Timing of Mesoproterozoic tectonic activity in the northwestern Gawler Craton constrained by 40Ar/39Ar geochronology
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/6205fc03-eb95-4c64-8b55-e2ed0603093a
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        133.0,
        -34.0
      ],
      [
        138.0,
        -34.0
      ],
      [
        138.0,
        -29.0
      ],
      [
        133.0,
        -29.0
      ],
      [
        133.0,
        -34.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Timing of Mesoproterozoic tectonic activity in the northwestern Gawler Craton constrained by 40Ar/39Ar geochronology". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/timing-of-mesoproterozoic-tectonic-activity-in-the-northwestern-gawler-craton-constrained-by-40