Cambrian arc evolution along the SE Gondwana active margin: A synthesis from Tasmania‐New Zealand‐Australia‐Antarctica correlations

Abstract

Belts of Cambrian rocks with arc affinities in eastern Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Antarctica are part of a single convergent margin, active over 30–40 Ma from the latest Early Cambrian to the Late Cambrian. Two of the most complete sequences are exposed in western Tasmania and the northern South Island of New Zealand (Takaka Terrane). Throughout the Middle Cambrian, magmatism in these two regions, in the Lachlan Fold Belt (SE Australia) and the Bowers Terrane (Antarctica) is represented by intra‐oceanic arc and back arc sequences. In the mid‐Middle Cambrian, collision of these arc segments with the proto‐Gondwana continent is recorded by obducted boninite‐bearing ophiolites in Tasmania and SE Australia. Postcollisional magmatism of latest Middle to early Late Cambrian age (e.g., Mount Read Volcanics of Tasmania and Stavely Volcanic Complex of Victoria) terminates convergent tectonics in SE Australia and Tasmania. In contrast, no postcollisional volcanism is known from the Bowers Terrane in Antarctica and from New Zealand. In Antarctica, Cambrian igneous activity in the Wilson Terrane and Transantarctic Mountains formed in an active continental margin setting and lasted through the Middle and Late Cambrian. This suggests that the Wilson Terrane is the lateral continuation on continental basement of the Bowers and Takaka Terrane arcs. The differences between the Australian ‐ Tasmanian and New Zealand ‐ Antarctic arc segments may result from a change in subduction polarity along the arc chain, suggested by structural features, sedimentation patterns, and isotope systematics. In the SE Australian and Tasmanian arc segments the proto‐Gondwana plate subducted beneath the Pacific plate whereas subduction in the Antarctic and New Zealand segments was of opposite polarity. Common to most Cambrian fragments in SE proto Gondwana is the tectonic overprint by the Ross‐Delamerian orogeny from the Middle Cambrian to Early Ordovician, thus paleogeographically linking all the fragments by the end of the Cambrian. The presence of Early Cambrian intra‐oceanic rocks at the SE proto‐Gondwana margin suggests separation of Laurentia from Gondwana prior to the Early Cambrian.