Structural repetition of the Hutchison Group metasediments, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

Abstract

Progressive deformation of the Palaeoproterozoic Hutchison Group metasediments, eastern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, accompanied the development of a ∼200 km‐long suture, the Kalinjala Shear Zone. High‐strain structures that developed during the Kimban Orogeny preserved in this supracrustal sequence at Sleaford Bay, southern Eyre Peninsula are: (i) KF1 sheath folds; and (ii) KD2 tight folds and reverse shears. Basement Archaean Sleaford Complex gneisses are interpreted to have been thrust over their cover rocks. Interleaving of individual Hutchison Group units by imbricate shears and folds are suggested to have caused an estimated strike‐normal shortening of up to 50%. However, this calculation is of less significance than the >15:1 strike‐parallel elongation of the package during KD1. Identical structural elements reported by earlier workers are also preserved in the stratigraphic type areas of the Hutchison Group, central Eyre Peninsula. Importantly, the stratigraphic Upper and Lower Middleback Jaspilites, in the Middleback Range, are reinterpreted as one unit structurally repeated by a kilometre‐scale KF1 sheath fold. Imbricate KD2 shear zones are inferred to have inverted original disconformities throughout the package. In light of these observations, we suggest that the currently constructed stratigraphic succession of the Hutchison Group should be regionally re‐examined, with a special focus in those areas less affected by the imbricate structures.