A Discussion on global tectonics in Proterozoic times - Some aspects of the Panantarctic cratonic margin in Australia

Abstract

The ancestral supershield of Panantarctica contains a tectonic grain which suggests a single continuous tectonic entity in Archean time. Within the Australian continent, this single cratonic province continued to late Carpentarian or early Adelaidean time with incipient mantle plume and junction-rift tectonics operating on the cratonic margin (Mt Isa) and probably within the craton (Batton Trough). In Early Adelaidean times, major cratonic separation and right lateral shear along the Musgrave mobile belt is proposed to displace the cratonic margin. This transcurrent displacement was probably localized by a Carpentarian aulacogen. These events established the pattern for subsequent separation and collision of the Gawler and Arunta subprovinces, which controlled intracratonic deposition in the Amadeus and Canning basins through Phanerozoic time.