Major crustal boundaries of Australia

Brief description

The 'Major crustal boundaries of Australia' map synthesizes more than 30 years of acquisition of deep seismic reflection data across Australia, where major crustal-scale breaks have been interpreted in the seismic reflection profiles, often inferred to be relict sutures between different crustal blocks. The widespread coverage of the seismic profiles now provides the opportunity to construct a map of major crustal boundaries across Australia. Starting with the locations of the crustal breaks identified in the seismic profiles, geological (e.g. outcrop mapping, drill hole, geochronology, isotope) and geophysical (e.g. gravity, aeromagnetic, magnetotelluric) data are used to map the crustal boundaries, in map view, away from the seismic profiles. For some of these boundaries, a high level of confidence can be placed on the location, whereas the location of other boundaries can only be considered to have medium or low confidence. In other areas, especially in regions covered by thick sedimentary successions, the locations of some crustal boundaries are essentially unconstrained. The 'Major crustal boundaries of Australia' map shows the locations of inferred ancient plate boundaries, and will provide constraints on the three dimensional architecture of Australia. It allows a better understanding of how the Australian continent was constructed from the Mesoarchean through to the Phanerozoic, and how this evolution and these boundaries have controlled metallogenesis. It is best viewed as a dynamic dataset, which will have to be further refined and updated as new information such as seismic reflection data becomes available.

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: unknown

Statement: Unknown