Mt Isa Field Guide
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Basin architecture and crustal evolution in the Paleoproterozoic–earliest Mesoproterozoic sequences of Mount Isa, northern Australia: a record of supercontinent assembly and breakup NOTES FOR AN IGCP 648 FIELD EXCURSION IN THE MOUNT ISA REGION Prepared and compiled by George M. Gibson1, 2 and Ian W. Withnall3 Project 648 SupercontinentCycles & GlobalGeodynamics 1. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 2. Geoscience Australia, Canberra 3. Geological Survey of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 1 Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5 Excursion Objectives and Content ................................................................................ 5 Excursion Organisation ................................................................................................. 8 Arrival in Mount Isa ....................................................................................................................... 8 Accommodation & Logistics ......................................................................................................... 8 Departure from Mount Isa .............................................................................................................. 8 Outback Tourist Centre .................................................................................................................. 8 General Information........................................................................................................................ 8 Mount Isa geology and the supercontinent cycle ....................................................... 10 Regional geology & tectonic setting ............................................................................ 13 Basin history of Mount Isa region ................................................................................................ 13 Leichhardt Superbasin (1800–1750 Ma) ..................................................................................................... 15 Calvert Superbasin (1740–1670 Ma) ........................................................................................................... 17 Isa Superbasin (1670–1590 Ma) .................................................................................................................. 18 Basin evolution and detachment faulting ..................................................................................... 19 Implications for reconstructions of the Nuna and Rodinia supercontinents ............................... 21 Day to Day Itinerary .................................................................................................... 24 Friday June 16 ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Saturday June 17 ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Sunday June 18 .............................................................................................................................................. 25 Monday June 19 ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Tuesday June 20 ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Wednesday June 21 ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Localities, measured sections and outcrop geology ................................................... 30 Day 1 – Magazine Section, Mount Gordon ................................................................................. 30 Locality 1: Contact between Leichhardt and Calvert superbasins ............................................................ 30 Day 2 – Barr Hole section to Esperanza Waterhole .................................................................... 33 Locality 2: Unconformity between upper Leichhardt Superbasin (Lochness Formation) and Calvert Superbasin ...................................................................................................................................................... 33 Locality 3: Lower Calvert Superbasin (Surprise Creek Formation) at Barr Hole (Torpedo Creek) ...... 35 Locality 4: Basin inversion structures (Hole-in-Wall Creek) ..................................................................... 35 Locality 5: Esperanza Waterhole and Gun unconformity .......................................................................... 36 Day 3 − Crocodile Waterhole, Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Block, Wonga Extensional Belt ........... 38 Locality 6: Leichhardt through Calvert to Isa Superbasin (Crocodile Waterhole) .................................. 38 Locality 7: Post-rift Ballara Quartzite, Barkly Highway ............................................................................ 39 Locality 8: Syn-rift silicic magmatism (Argylla Formation) in Leichhardt Superbasin ........................... 39 Locality 9: Granitic rocks of Greens Creek (Wonga Extensional Belt) ..................................................... 41 Locality 10: Upper plate rocks in Wonga Extensional Belt ........................................................................ 43 Day 4 − Soldiers Cap Group, ....................................................................................................... 44 Locality 11: Metagabbro and trondhjemite emplaced into Soldiers Cap Group ...................................... 46 Locality 12: Deep water turbidites metamorphosed to amphibolite facies (Soldiers Cap Group) .......... 48 Locality 13: Deep water turbidites metamorphosed to amphibolite facies (Soldiers Cap Group) .......... 49 Locality 14 Coherent metasediments of the Stavely Formation ................................................................. 49 Locality 15: Regionally brecciated Staveley Formation ............................................................................. 52 Locality 16: Answer Slate— carbonaceous slate with copper mineralisation at Copper Canyon .......... 53 Locality 17: Siliceous mylonite between Staveley Formation and Answer Slate ...................................... 55 Day 5 – Mitakoodi Block and Marimo–Staveley Belt, Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Block .............. 55 Locality 18 Mitakoodi Quarztite and Wakeful Metabasalt Member (Mt Isa railway line) ...................... 58 Locality 19: Overhang Shear – siliceous mylonite ...................................................................................... 58 Locality 20: Overhang Jaspilite — spectacularly folded jaspilitic siltstone ............................................. 61 2 Locality 21: Basement gneisses of Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Block .............................................................. 62 Day 6 – Syn-extensional (Sybella) granites and Lake Moondarra section through Surprise Creek Formation and Isa Group ................................................................................................... 63 Locality 22: Syn-rift magmatism – the Sybella (Granite) Batholith ........................................................... 63 Locality 23: Lake Moondarra transect through inverted basin sequence (Calvert-Isa Superbasins) ..... 63 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 70 References...................................................................................................................... 71 3 Executive Summary Paleoproterozoic–earliest Mesoproterozoic sequences in the Mount Isa region of northern Australia preserve a 200 Myr record (1800–1600 Ma) of intracontinental rifting, culminating in crustal thinning, elevated heat flow and establishment of a North American Basin and Range- style crustal architecture in which basin evolution was linked at depth to bimodal magmatism, high temperature-low pressure metamorphism and the formation of extensional shear zones. This geological evolution and record is amenable to investigation through a combination of mine visits and outcrop geology, and is the principal purpose of this field guide. Rifting initiated in crystalline basement ≥1840 Ma old and produced three stacked sedimentary basins (1800–1750 Ma Leichhardt, 1730–1670 Ma Calvert and 1670–1575 Ma Isa superbasins) separated by major unconformities and in which depositional conditions progressively changed from fluviatile-lacustrine to fully marine. By 1670-1655 Ma, a deep marine, turbidite-dominated basin existed in the east and basaltic magmas had evolved in composition from continental to oceanic tholeiites as the crust became increasingly thinned and attenuated. Except for an episode of collision-related deformation and basin inversion from 1650-1640 Ma, sedimentation continued across the region until onset of the Isan Orogeny at ca. 1620 Ma. A near-identical record of crustal thinning and basaltic magmatism accompanied basin formation (lower Willyama Supergroup) in the formerly contiguous Broken Hill region from 1730–1670 Ma. This was followed by further extension and a second phase of basin development that lasted until at least 1640 Ma. Modern-day rifted