Tectonic evolution of the Early Archaean Doolena Gap Greenstone Belt, East Pilbara Terrane, Western Australia

Abstract

This thesis examined how the oldest core of the Australian continent formed more than 3.5 billion years ago. Unraveling the complex tectonic and petrologic history of ancient rocks of the East Pilbara in Western Australia provided important new insights into how and why continents developed on our hot, young planet. A multifaceted methodology of field-based structural geology, uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating of zircon, whole-rock geochemistry, and petrology improved our understanding of early Archaean mass and heat transfer, including the history of the associated planetary surface environment, which hosted some of the earliest life on Earth.