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SHRIMPing beneath the Eromanga Basin: new insights into the evolution of the Thomson Orogen from SHRIMP U–Pb geochronology of basement drill cores

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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The Thomson Orogen of eastern Australia is a major component of the Tasmanides and has historically been poorly understood and overlooked for exploration due to extensive sedimentary cover including the Eromanga Basin. To further understanding and encourage exploration of this area, Geoscience Australia, the Geological Survey of Queensland and the Geological Survey of New South Wales (NSW) have undertaken a major multidisciplinary geoscientific programme in the southern Thomson Orogen (STO) as a part of the UNCOVER initiative. A major outcome of this project has been the completion of twelve stratigraphic diamond drill holes between 2016 and 2017. SHRIMP U–Pb zircon dating of magmatic and metasedimentary rocks intersected by the boreholes provide new insights into the geological evolution and mineral prospectivity of this region. Geochronology of three intrusive rocks intersected by new boreholes in the NSW part of STO have late Silurian ages of ~425 Ma (Tongo 1), ~421 Ma (Janina 1) and ~421 Ma (Congararra 1). The age of the granodiorite intersected by Tongo 1 is within uncertainty of the intrusion-related Mo-W and later Au-base metal mineralisation at the Cuttaburra and F1 prospects located ~20 km southeast of the Tongo 1 borehole. Additionally, previously unknown volcanic events have been revealed by a dacitic ignimbrite (~387 Ma) in borehole GSQ Eulo 2 (Queensland) and a rhyolite (~395 Ma) in borehole, Milcarpa 1 (NSW). Detrital zircon geochronology has also played an important role in characterising undercover units such as the Werewilka Formation and Nebine Metamorphics, interpreted from geophysical data sets. This abstract was submitted to and presented at the 2018 Australian Geoscience Council Convention (AGCC) (https://www.agcc.org.au/)

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Title SHRIMPing beneath the Eromanga Basin: new insights into the evolution of the Thomson Orogen from SHRIMP U–Pb geochronology of basement drill cores
Language English
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/e86f6327-b91f-4f08-b417-d239f1bfe0f7
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 07/06/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "SHRIMPing beneath the Eromanga Basin: new insights into the evolution of the Thomson Orogen from SHRIMP U–Pb geochronology of basement drill cores". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/shrimping-beneath-the-eromanga-basin-new-insights-into-the-evolution-of-the-thomson-orogen-from