Detrital zircon data reveal the origin of Australia's largest delta system

The Late Cretaceous Ceduna Delta is the largest deltaic system on the Australian continent, yet its source is unknown. Apatite fission-track data reveal widespread Late Cretaceous exhumation across the southern Australian margin. New detrital zircon analysis of 786 grains from the Gnarlyknots-1 well...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of the Geological Society Vol. 170; no. 1; pp. 3 - 6
Main Authors:	MacDonald, Justin D, Holford, Simon P, Green, Paul F, Duddy, Ian R, King, Rosalind C, Backe, Guillaume
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London, UK Geological Society of London 01-01-2013 The Geological Society of London Geological Society Publishing House
Subjects:	absolute age Age apatite Australasia Australia Brackish Ceduna Delta Cenomanian clastic rocks Cretaceous data deltaic environment deltas detritus Eromanga Basin exhumation fission-track dating geochronology Geological time Geology ICP mass spectra Lower Cretaceous Maestrichtian Magma mass spectra Mesozoic nesosilicates orthosilicates paleogeography Paleozoic Permian phosphates provenance recycling Santonian sedimentary rocks silicates Soil erosion South Australia spectra Stratigraphy tectonics U/Pb Upper Cretaceous zircon zircon group Australia South Australia Australia
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Summary:	The Late Cretaceous Ceduna Delta is the largest deltaic system on the Australian continent, yet its source is unknown. Apatite fission-track data reveal widespread Late Cretaceous exhumation across the southern Australian margin. New detrital zircon analysis of 786 grains from the Gnarlyknots-1 well, which penetrated the offshore delta top, show that the upper part of the delta (Santonian-Maastrichtian) was sourced largely from recycled Permian to Early Cretaceous cover and underlying basement eroded from the margin, proximal to the basin. This challenges the widely accepted model involving distal provenance of >2000 km from the eastern margin of Australia.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0016-7649 2041-479X
DOI:	10.1144/jgs2012-093