Mountains Without Collision: Orogenic Activity in Accretionary
Belts
Supervisors
Research Affiliations
Degree Type/Name
Pre-requisites
Student Support
Collaboration
Prof Peter Cawood and Prof Klaus Regenauer-Lieb
Tectonics Special Research Centre
Ph.D
B.Sc (Hons) or M.Sc. in Geology or some other area of
Geoscience
A student undertaking a PhD is eligible to apply for Federal
Government and UWA post-graduate scholarships.
This project is in collaboration the Commonwealth Scientific &
Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Skills
This research project provides field mapping, structural analysis, geochronology and
geodynamic modelling. Skills are relevant for work in industry, government and academia.
Project Description
Classic models of orogens involve a Wilson cycle of ocean opening and closing with
orogenesis related to continent-continent collision (collisional orogen). Such models fail to
explain the geological history of a significant number of orogenic belts throughout the world in
which deformation, metamorphism and crustal growth took place in an environment of
continual convergence between oceanic and continental plates. These belts are termed
accretionary orogens.
Fig.1 Thrust slice of Permian redbeds western Argentina.
Accretionary mountain belts form at sites of subduction of oceanic lithosphere (crust and
upper mantle) at tectonic plate boundaries and have been the major sites of continental
growth and mineralization throughout Earth history. This project will determine if the growth of
these mountain belts is the result of local processes specific to each plate boundary or a
consequence of global plate interactions through study of the Permo-Triassic history of the
Pacific margin of Gondwana from east Australia to South America. Outcomes will include
conceptual advances in understanding the origin of accretionary mountain belts that will
impact on a number of fundamental fields in the Earth Sciences, notably, tectonics, structural
geology and geodynamic modelling.
The project will involve data collection through a combination of field mapping, geochronology
and geodynamic modelling. Depending on student interests the project can be tailored to
place particular emphasis in any of these research areas. Information will be integrated with
other data from along the Pacific margin of Gondwana to develop a tectonic model for
orogenic activity in accretionary orogens.
Recommended Reading
BUCHAN, C. and CAWOOD, P.A., 2006. Linking accretionary orogenesis with supercontinent
assembly. Earth-Science Reviews.
CAWOOD, P.A., 2005. Terra Australis Orogen: Rodinia breakup and development of the
Pacific and Iapetus margins of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic. EarthScience Reviews, 69(3-4): 249-279.
PANKHURST, R.J., RAPELA, C.W., FANNING, C.M. and MARQUEZ, M., 2006. Gondwanide
continental collision and the origin of Patagonia. Earth-Science Reviews, 76(3-4): 235-257.