Silurian to mid-Devonian basin development of the Melbourne Zone, Lachlan Fold Belt, southeastern Australia

Abstract

The Melbourne Zone comprises Early Ordovician to Early Devonian marine turbidites, which pass conformably upward into a mid-Devonian fluviatile succession. There are four pulses of Silurian to mid-Devonian deep-marine sandstone-dominated sedimentation: Early Silurian (late Llandovery), Late Silurian (Ludlow), earliest Devonian (Lochkovian) and late Early Devonian (Emsian). Two dispersal patterns have been defined using more than 1100 palaeocurrent measurements, mainly from sole marks and cross-laminations in graded beds, together with sandstone compositions. The older pattern, of Silurian to earliest Devonian age, contains the lowest three sandstone pulses. Palaeocurrents and provenance define a wedge of southwesterly derived sediment, of largely cratonic provenance, thinning eastward. This older dispersal pattern is part of an Early Ordovician to earliest Devonian east-facing passive continental margin succession. Palaeocurrents and provenance in the Emsian sandstone pulse comprise three patterns: (1) west- to southwesterly directed palaeocurrents associated with fine- to coarse-grained, locally conglomeratic, lithic sandstones containing a high proportion of volcanic detritus; (2) east- to northeasterly directed palaeocurrents associated with fine- to medium-grained quartz-lithic sandstones; (3) north- to northwesterly and south- to southeasterly directed palaeocurrents associated with fine- to medium-grained sandstones of variable lithic composition. The palaeocurrent and provenance pattern defines a NNW-elongate basin with a tectonically active eastern margin, and is similar to the coeval Mathinna basin of northeastern Tasmania. Both basins are part of the same system of wrench basins, which developed along the western side of the Wagga–Omeo Metamorphic Belt during the earliest Devonian to Middle Devonian. The change in tectonic setting in the earliest Devonian appears to have occurred during an interval of significant dextral translation of the eastern Lachlan Fold Belt towards the SSE along the Governor and associated fault zones.