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Ten glacially related megaclasts, unique perhaps from a global perspective, have been identified in the MacDonald Corridor. Included are perhaps the largest known glacially-related basement-derived megaclasts, the Bimbowrie Megaclast measuring 1.25 km in exposed width. The MacDonald Corridor is the most outward of four half-grabens to the east of the main Adelaide Geosyncline rift complex. All four contain Neoproterozoic low-grade metasedimentary rocks situated between inliers of Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic basement at the southwestern margin of the Curnamona Province. These corridors originated as extensional structures during the last of three major episodes of rifting that led to the eventual break-up of the supercontinent Rodinia. This rift phase was synchronous with the older (Sturtian-age) of the two major Cryogenian glaciations that are recorded in the rift and sag-basin complex of the Adelaide Geosyncline in South Australia. Those megaclasts selected for description vary in size from 0.1 to 1.25 km in exposed width, and were derived from the eastern rift flank, the Kalabity Inlier They therefore comprise either Paleoproterozoic metamorphic or Mesoproterozoic rocks or a composite of both. The megaclasts fall into two groups, those contained within the sedimentary fill of the rift basin, the Bimbowrie and Adlaweena megaclasts being the largest, and those resting as erratics on the flank. Of these, the 450 m wide Old Boolcoomata Megaclast resides within the remains of a steeply dipping U-shaped glacial valley. Tectonic activity and ice action are considered to have been responsible for creating the high-relief topography of the Kalabity Inlier. Ice was also instrumental in separating the megaclasts from their source and transporting them into the tectonically active MacDonald Corridor half-graben. Additionally, the variation of floating ice-cover controlled iron deposition within the glacigene Benda Siltstone. The present morphology of the MacDonald Corridor is largely due to the Cambrian Delamerian Orogeny, which while causing some structural complexity, exhumed and tilted the infill of the corridor to view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 300-Mt Broken Hill Pb-Zn-Ag orebody is in the Broken Hill Domain, which, together with the contiguous Olary Domain, constitutes the southern part of the Curnamona province of eastern Australia. The Curnamona province is dominated by medium- to high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Paleoproterozoic Willyama Supergroup and is the focus of exploration for base metals, gold and uranium. A robust chronology of the ∼1720 to 1640 Ma Willyama Supergroup provides the basis for temporal correlations on a regional scale between the Olary and Broken Hill Domains, and possibly on an interbasin scale between the southern Curnamona province and the Carpentaria zinc belt in northern Australia (Mount Isa, McArthur River). SHRIMP U-Pb zircon analyses from tuffaceous metasedimentary rocks provide ages for two new chronostratigraphic marker horizons in the Olary Domain. Firstly, the 1693 ± 3 Ma Plumbago Formation, and an equivalent metasiltstone in the Broken Hill Domain, confirm earlier suggestions that the base metal-enriched Bimba Formation is stratigraphically equivalent to the Ettlewood Calc-Silicate Member in the lower part of the ∼1685 to 1695 Ma Broken hill Group. Secondly, tuffaceous sedimentary rocks in the Mount Howden Subgroup of the Olary Domain have a maximum age of 1651 ± 7 Ma, thus suggesting correlation with a similar lithostratigraphic succession in the middle Paragon Group at Broken Hill. The lithostratigraphy, depositional ages, and inferred intervals of missing rock in the Curnamona province are broadly similar to the basin evolution of the Carpentaria zinc belt of northern Australia, suggesting possible chronostratigraphic correlations between Broken Hill and the Mount Isa-McArthur regions. The Broken Hill Group (∼1695-1685 Ma) is considered to be time-equivalent to the Prize Supersequence in northern Australia, with possible implications for their respective depositional and metallogenic histories. Depositional ages from the middle Paragon Group (1655 ± 4 Ma, 1657 ± 4 Ma) at Broken Hill are closely comparable to the ca. 1655 Ma ages of tuff units associated with the Mount Isa and Hilton Pb-Zn-Ag orebodies (Gun Supersequence of northern Australia). The upper Paragon Group is considered to be the same age (ca. 1640 Ma) as that part of the Isa superbasin that hosts the McArthur River (HYC) deposit of the McArthur basin, the Walford deposit, and other Pb-Zn-Ag-mineralized sequences of the Lawn Hill platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stratigraphic distribution in Australian Precambrian rocks of columnar stromatolites, organosedimentary structures formed by blue-green algae, has been investigated. Their morphology is being studied according to methods developed in Russia. The discovery of successive different assemblages supports not only regional but also intercontinental stratigraphic correlations which are in agreement with available isotopic datings.