Structural architecture of the Owen Conglomerate, West Coast Range, western Tasmania: field evidence for Late Cambrian extension.

Abstract

The Owen Conglomerate comprises coarse-grained siliciclastics that were deposited in response to Late Cambrian extension. The identification of normal faults that host thickened accumulations of siliciclastics is used here to support interpretation of syn-fill extension. Local mapping and section construction have identified a series of north-trending, en échelon, segmented normal faults that exhibit changes in along-strike polarity. The Late Cambrian faults are adjacent to sedimentary packages that define half-graben geometries, with an unconformity that defines basal contacts with underlying Mt Read Volcanics and onlap geometries onto the opposing basin margin. Faults that were active during deposition of the Owen Conglomerate were subsequently reversed during D1 Middle Devonian deformation, with reverse displacement controlling the development of inversion structures defined by north-trending fold structures. Pervasive northwest-trending D2 deformation extensively overprints earlier deformation features, and has led to the spectacular development of type 1 interference patterns that largely control outcrop distributions along the West Coast Range. Field evidence is documented in support for a simple structural history that accounts for geometries associated with Late Cambrian extension, prior to Middle Devonian inversion (D1) and subsequent shortening (D2).