Late Palaeozoic Deformation in East Australia: Implications for
Orogenesis
Supervisor
Research Affiliations
Degree Type/Name
Pre-requisites
Student Support
Prof Peter Cawood
Tectonics Special Research Centre
Honours - Geology, Earth Science or other relevant field of
Geoscience
Degree in Geology or other kind Geoscience degree.
Support Researcher expenses will be covered from supervisor
research funds.
Collaboration
Skills
This research project provides field mapping, structural mapping and constraining timing of
deformational events through geochronology. Skills are relevant for work in industry and
further academic studies.
Project Description
The New England region of eastern Australia represents a Palaeozoic convergent plate
margin (island arc) that at the termination of subduction in the Permo-Triassic underwent
regional deformation. Orogenic activity included features related to both extension, such as
rifting, volcanism and sedimentation, as well as compression, such as basin inversion,
regional folding, crustal melting and granite emplacement. The region lay along the Pacific
margin of Gondwana and the information from this project will be important in documenting
the character, extent and tectonic controls on orogenic activity along the entire margin of the
supercontinent.
Fig.1 Mildly deformed early Permian granite intruding slates, New England Fold Belt, eastern
Australia
A variety of mapping projects are available within the region and consist of a series of related
components:

Four to six weeks field mapping in the New England region. This will involve detailed
mapping, sample collection and note taking including determining nature of geological
contacts, establishing relative timing and overprinting relations, and the collection of
structural orientation data. The aim is to produce a geologic map of the region and
understand the three dimensional orientation of rock units and their contacts.

Analysis of field data including preparation of final geological map and petrography of
rock units and their fabric elements.

Where appropriate geochronology will be undertaken by either the U-Pb or Ar-Ar
methods of suitable rock units to constrain their absolute age and the timing of
deformational events.

This information will be integrated with other data from along the Pacific margin of
Gondwana to develop a tectonic model for orogenic activity at this time.
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.
LEITCH, E.C., 1988. The Barnard Basin and the Early Permian Development of the southern
part of the New England Fold Belt. In: J.D. Kleeman (Editor), New England Orogen, Tectonics
and Metallogenesis. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of New England,
Armidale, pp. 61-67.