Pre-Quaternary landforms in the low latitude context: the example of Australia

Abstract

Direct effects of Quaternary glaciation and periglacial activity affected only comparatively small areas of southeastern Australia. Certainly, volcanicity continued in a few districts, extensive new planation surfaces were formed, dunefields were widely developed, and there were important developments at the coastline and offshore, during this period, but many pre-Quaternary terrains persist in the contemporary landscape. Tertiary volcanic plains and plateaux are widespread in the Eastern Uplands and duricrusted (ferruginised, silicified) remnants, some of them folded, are characteristic of many parts of the central and western sectors of the continent. Drainage systems of similar age are also increasingly recognised. Older, Gondwanan elements also feature prominently but especially in the Eastern Uplands and on the Craton. Some of these ancient elements are exhumed but others are epigene and etched, though the so-called epigene surfaces are mostly of etch type. The survival of the ancient epigene and etch forms is attributed to resistance of bedrock, through drainage, unequal activity and reinforcement mechanisms.