Granite diapirism in the Rum Jungle area, Northern Australia

Abstract

Early studies in the Rum Jungle area suggested an intrusive relationship between the Rum Jungle and Waterhouse “Granites”, and the overlying sediments. It was later shown that the granitic “intrusions” were Archaean basement complexes onto which Lower Proterozoic sediments had been deposited. Polyphase folding was postulated as being responsible for doming of the basement and cover rocks. This paper proposes to show that the domed structures in the Rum Jungle area, and the emplacement of Middle Proterozoic granites in the Pine Creek Geosyncline were related, and caused by diapiric intrusion of granites, in a solid state, into basement complexes and cover rocks. Structural and metamorphic evidence in support of diapiric intrusion in the Rum Jungle area includes: pebble deformation within steeply dipping beds of quartz conglomerate; disappearance of polyphase fold structures away from the basement complexes; bending of folded country-rock strata into concordance with the complex—sediment contact; and metamorphic and metasomatic alteration of sediments in contact with the basement complexes. Gravity data show mass deficiencies in the Archaean complexes which possibly coincide with young granite diapirs.