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Abstract: The main limiting factor in obtaining precise and accurate uranium-series (U-series) ages of corals that lived during the last few hundred years is the ability to constrain and correct for initial thorium-230 (230Th0), which is proportionally much higher in younger samples. This is becoming particularly important in palaeoecological research where accurate chronologies, based on the 230Th chronometer, are required to pinpoint changes in coral community structure and the timing of mortality events in recent time (e.g. since European settlement of northern Australia in the 1850s). In this study, thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS) U-series dating of 43 samples of known ages collected from living Porites spp. from the far northern, central and southern inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was performed to spatially constrain initial 230Th/232Th (230Th/232Th0) variability. In these living Porites corals, the majority of 230Th/232Th0 values fell within error of the conservative bulk Earth 230Th/232Th atomic value of 4.3±4.3×10−6 (2σ) generally assumed for 230Th0 corrections where the primary source is terrestrially derived. However, the results of this study demonstrate that the accuracy of 230Th ages can be further improved by using locally determined 230Th/232Th0 values for correction, supporting the conclusion made by for the Western Pacific. Despite samples being taken from regions adjacent to contrasting levels of land modification, no significant differences were found in 230Th/232Th0 between regions exposed to varying levels of sediment during river runoff events. Overall, 39 of the total 43 230Th/232Th0 atomic values measured in samples from inshore reefs across the entire region show a normal distribution ranging from 3.5±1.1 to 8.1±1.1×10−6, with a weighted mean of 5.76±0.34×10−6 (2σ, MSWD=8.1). Considering the scatter of the data, the weighted mean value with a more conservative assigned error of 25% (i.e. 5.8±1.4×10−6) that encompasses the full variation of the 39 230Th/232Th0 measurements is recommended as a more appropriate value for initial 230Th corrections for U-series dating of most Porites samples from inshore regions of the GBR. This will result in significant improvement in both the precision and accuracy of the corrected 230Th ages related to those based on the assumed bulk Earth 230Th/232Th0 value of 4.3±4.3×10−6. However, several anomalously high 230Th/232Th0 values reaching up to 28.0±1.6×10−6 occasionally found in some coral annual bands coinciding with El Niño years imply high 230Th/232Th0 sources and highlight the complexities of understanding 230Th/232Th0 variability. For U-series dating of young coral samples from such sites where anomalous 230Th/232Th0 values occur, we suggest replicate dating of multiple growth bands with known age difference to verify age accuracy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Intensive carbonate and clay mineral authigenesis took place throughout the Late Permian Bowen–Gunnedah–Sydney basin system in eastern Australia. We conducted isotopic and trace element analyses of carbonate and clay minerals from clastic sedimentary rocks of the Gunnedah Basin and the Denison Trough in the Bowen Basin. Rb–Sr isochron age data of the illitic clays are consistent with episodic hydrothermal fluid flow events that occurred in association with Gondwana rifting accompanied by alkaline magmatism at ∼85Ma and ∼95Ma. Stable isotope data of carbonate and clay minerals from the Gunnedah Basin are indicative of meteoric waters from a high-latitude environment as the main fluid source, whereas trace element, Sr and Nd isotope data highlight mixing of meteoric fluids with magmatic and/or crustal components, with a possible input from marine carbonates for some samples. Trace metals, oxygen and strontium isotopes of dawsonites from the Denison Trough are interpreted to have been mobilised by fluids that interacted with evolved clastic sedimentary and marine carbonate end members. According to the carbon isotope data, CO2 for calcite and ankerite precipitation was sourced mainly from thermal degradation of organic matter and magmatism, whereas the CO2 used for dawsonite formation is inferred to have been derived from magmatic and marine sources. In the low permeability environments (particularly in coal seams), the increasing accumulation and oversaturation of CO2 particularly promote the precipitation of dawsonite. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]