1. Late Archean Lake Harris Komatiite, Central Gawler Craton, South Australia: Geologic Setting and Geochemistry.
- Author
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Hoatson, Dean M., Shen-Su Sun, Duggan, Morris B., Davies, Marc B., Daly, Sue J., and Purvis, Alan C.
- Subjects
KOMATIITE ,LAVA ,ULTRABASIC rocks - Abstract
The Lake Harris Komatiite in the central Gawler craton of South Australia is the first documented komatiite outside the West Australian craton and the easternmost occurrence of such primitive ultramafic rocks in Australia. A U-Pb zircon age of ca. 2520 Ga for the komatiitic sequence indicates a previously unknown period of mantle-plume activity in the Late Archean. An integrated program of airborne magnetic surveys, gravity surveys, and core drilling was successful in defining the distribution and volcanic architecture of the komatiitic flows and associated greenstones through an extensive thin cover of Cenozoic alluvial sediments. Surface exposure of the komatiitic rocks is restricted to one small outcrop near Lake Harris. The greenstones form a series of subparallel east-northeast-trending sinuous magnetic highs flanked by large ovoid to elongate magnetic highs and lows that correlate with Archean-Proterozoic granitic bodies associated with province-wide shear systems, similar to the Archean greenstone terranes in the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia. The steeply dipping greenstone sequence was metamorphosed to middle amphibolite facies during the ca. 2440 Ma Sleafordian orogeny and sheared during the ca. 1700 Ma Kimban and ca. 1540 Ma Kararan orogenies. The greenstones consist of komatiite cumulates (43-32% MgO, anhydrous), high to low Mg komatiite (32-18% MgO), komatiitic and tholeiitic basalt (<18% MgO), pyroxenite cumulates, felsic volcanic rocks, minor metasedimentary rocks, pyroclastic rocks, and rare banded iron formation. They extend over 300 km in three subparallel belts that appear to be isoclinally folded around east-northeast axes and tectonically dismembered to the south by the Yerda shear zone. Komatiitic rocks have been confirmed by drilling in all three belts, but the absence of outcrop and structural complexities prevent detailed stratigraphic correlations within and between the belts. The komatiitic rocks display a range of quenched and... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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