Long-wavelength magnetic anomalies as a guide to the deep crustal composition and structure of eastern Australia

Abstract

Aeromagnetic data over eastern Australia reveal a pattern of domains defined by systematic regional highs and lows, emphasised by low-pass filtering, over which are superimposed shorter (<20 km) wavelength anomalies related to mappable geology and its inferred subsurface continuation. Long-baseline levelling by Geoscience Australia has clarified the definition of these magnetic domains, and confirmed that they are not an artefact of grid merging. Geothermal and teleseismic data indicate that neither variation in Curie depth nor upper mantle magnetisation can produce the long-wavelength pattern. Hence, domain-wide variations in magnetisation at the middle to lower crustal level are presumably the cause of these long-wavelength features. Although reversed polarity remanence could contribute to deeply sourced negative magnetic anomalies, the correspondence of magnetic low domains with the Proterozoic Curnamona Craton and the Ordovician Macquarie Arc, and of a high domain with the western Lachlan Orogen floored by Cambrian ocean crust, suggests that the control may be simply stark contrasts in lower to middle crustal susceptibility. Moho thickness determined by the AusMoho model mimics the pattern of susceptibility domains, suggesting a relationship between tectonic history and mid to lower crustal composition. Implicit in this analysis is a division of the domains into continental and oceanic basement, with implications for the tectonic evolution of the Tasmanides and the distribution of mineral systems in eastern Australia. The mid to lower crust below the Macquarie Arc appears to be continental, and the Thomson Orogen is a compound feature, comprising both attenuated continental/arc crust and accreted oceanic crust.