Geological Evolution of the Kimberley Region of Western Australia

298 by Ian M. Tyler, Roger M. Hocking and Peter W. Haines Geological evolution of the Kimberley region of Western Australia Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain Street, East Perth WA 6004, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] The history of the Kimberley region in the far north followed in the Canning Basin, but by the early Triassic of Western Australia began in the Paleoproterozoic with deposition was restricted and the remainder of the rifting along the North Australian Craton margin at Mesozoic succession forms a veneer over much of the 1910–1880 Ma, followed by plate collision as part of a basin. series of 1870–1790 Ma events that formed the Diamantina Craton within the supercontinent Nuna. Introduction Collision involved the accretion of an intra-oceanic arc to a continent that included the Kimberley Craton The geological history of the Kimberley region in the far N of before final collision and suturing with the North Western Australia (Figures 1 and 2) is complex and spans almost 2 billion years of earth history. A period of Paleoproterozoic plate Australian Craton. The c. 1835 Ma Speewah Basin collision during the assembly of the supercontinent Nuna produced formed as a retro-arc foreland basin to the W. The crystalline basement rocks forming the Hooper and Lamboo post-orogenic, c. 1800 Ma shallow-marine to fluvial provinces. Collision and suturing was followed through the rest of Kimberley Basin and its equivalents had a provenance the Proterozoic and the Phanerozoic by repeated phases of sedimentary basin formation, orogenic deformation, and associated fault to the N and extended across both the Lamboo and reactivation at upper crustal levels, first within Nuna, then Rodinia Hooper provinces. Subsequent late Paleoproterozoic and and finally Gondwana. Deposition essentially ceased in the Late Mesoproterozoic basins formed broadly similar Paleozoic, and in the Neogene the region began to bow downwards depositional settings during break-up and reassembly as Australia met the Indian plate. into the supercontinent Rodinia. The intracratonic Yampi Orogeny generated large-scale folding and thrusting and Paleoproterozoic plate collision (1910– sinistral strike-slip faulting between 1400–1000 Ma. 1805 Ma) The Neoproterozoic Centralian Superbasin formed as a broad intracratonic sag basin throughout central The oldest exposed rocks in the Kimberley region are igneous and low- to high-grade meta-igneous and metasedimentary rocks that Australia between c. 830 Ma and the earliest Cambrian, occur within the 1910–1790 Ma Lamboo and Hooper provinces including a series of basins across the Kimberley. (Figures 1 and 2). The Halls Creek Orogen (Figure 2) is a suture Glacigene rocks are present with the most widespread formed by plate collision between the southeastern margin of a being equivalent to the c. 610 Ma Elatina (“Marinoan”) continent including the Kimberley Craton (which underlies the glaciation. Folding, thrusting and strike-slip faulting Speewah and Kimberley basins) and the NW margin of the North Australian Craton, and the Halls Creek Orogeny was one of a series during the c. 560 Ma King Leopold Orogeny caused a of linked collisional events that formed the Diamantina Craton as widespread unconformity at the base of the Ord and part of the supercontinent Nuna (Cawood and Korsch, 2008). Bonaparte basins marked by the c. 508 Ma Kalkarindji Collision was complex, involving the accretion of the Tickalara arc Continental Flood Basalt Province. In the Early to the Kimberley Craton during the 1870 –1850 Ma Hooper Orogeny (Figures 3 and 4), before suturing during the 1835–1805 Ma Halls Ordovician, thermal subsidence initiated the Canning Creek Orogeny (Blake et al., 2000; Griffin et al., 2000; Sheppard et Basin. Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, including Devonian al., 1999, 2001; Tyler, 2005). reef complexes, were deposited on the Lennard Shelf and in the Fitzroy Trough. In the Halls Creek Orogen, The Lamboo and Hooper Provinces Devonian sedimentary rocks were deposited in sub- The Lamboo Province in the Halls Creek Orogen can be divided basins of the Ord Basin during the c. 450–300 Ma Alice into three zones; the Western zone, the Central zone and the Eastern Springs Orogeny. A widespread glacigene succession zone (Figure 2). The Hooper Province in the west Kimberley is an March 2012 299 14° Mitchell Plateau Bx Wyndham Fault Kununurra Koolan 16° Fe Ivanhoe Speewah VTi Argyle Dmd Savannah Derby Ni Blina Fault Oil Ellendale Panton Dmd Greenvale Pt Pd Broome 18° Halls Creek Fitzroy Crossing Fault (Au) Glidden Koongie Park Cu Cadjebut Zn Pb 122° 124° 126° 128° SS242a 12.04.12 Phanerozoic sedimentary Bx Bauxite Pb Lead Kimberley Basin basins Town Cu Copper Pd Palladium Neoproterozoic sedimentary Speewah Basin Road Dmd Diamond Pt Platinum basins Fe Iron Ti Titanium Fault Mesoproterozoic sedimentary Lamboo and Hooper Ni Nickel V Vanadium basins Provinces Oil Oil Zn Zinc Red Rock,Texas Downs, Granites–Tanami Moola Bulla, and Revolver Province 100 km Creek Basins Figure 1 Tectonic units in the Kimberley region (after Tyler and Hocking, 2001). extension of the Western zone (Tyler et al., 1995; Griffin et al., 2000). metasedimentary rocks of the c. 1870 Ma Marboo Formation Stratigraphic units cannot be correlated across the zone boundaries, representing rifting marginal to the Kimberley Craton following which is consistent with the zones forming Paleoproterozoic accretion of earlier Paleoproterozoic exotic terranes (Figure 3; tectonostratigraphic terranes (Tyler et al., 1995). Griffin et al., 1993, 2000; Tyler et al., 1999). Partial melting of intermediate – felsic, calc-alkaline rock within these source terranes Hooper Province and the Western zone of the formed the felsic volcanic rocks of the unconformably overlying the Whitewater Volcanics, which were deformed and metamorphosed, Lamboo Province and extensively intruded by potassic, I-type granitic and sub-volcanic The oldest rocks in the Hooper Province and the Western zone of rocks, as well as gabbroic rocks, and layered mafic–ultramafic the Lamboo Province (Figure 2) are low- to high-grade turbiditic intrusions of the Paperbark Supersuite during the 1865–1850 Ma Episodes Vol. 35, no. 1 300 124° 126° 128° were deposited at 1845–1840 Ma Halls Creek during rifting of the arc (Page et al., Orogen 1994; Tyler et al., 2005). Layered KC mafic–ultramafic bodies were intruded NAC into the Central zone at c. 1856, c. King 1845 and 1830 Ma (Page and Hoatson, Leopold Orogen 2000). Large volumes of granite and gabbro of the Sally Downs Supersuite 15° intruded the Central zone during the Halls Creek Orogeny at 1835–1805 Ma (Tyler and Page, 1996; Page et al., 2001). v Eastern zone of the Lamboo Province v The Eastern zone (Figure 2) v v c. 1910 Ma mafic and felsic volcanic v rocks of the Ding Dong Downs 17° v v v Volcanics and associated granitic v v v rocks are unconformably overlain by v low-grade metasedimentary and v v v v v v v v v metavolcanic rocks of the Halls Creek v v v v v Group (Tyler et al., 1998). At the base v v v v v of the Halls Creek Group the quartz Phanerozoic basins sandstone of the Saunders Creek Neoproterozoic basins Formation contains exclusively Archean detrital zircon populations Mesoproterozoic basins (3600 Ma – 2512 Ma; Blake et al., Speewah and Kimberley basins (1835-1790 Ma) 1999; Tyler et al., 2005). Overlying Granites and gabbros (1835-1790 Ma) mafic volcanic rocks of the Biscay Formation in the lower part of the Halls Granites and gabbros (1865-1850 Ma) Creek Group were erupted at c. 1880 v v Hooper Province v Whitewater Volcanics and Ma on a passive continental margin Lamboo Province– along the western edge of the North Marboo Formation Western zone Australian Craton (Figure 3; Sheppard Tickalara Metamorphics and Lamboo Province Palaeoproterozoic Koongie Park Formation -Central zone et al., 1999). Halls Creek Group Lamboo Province The overlying turbiditic meta- -Eastern zone 100 km sedimentary rocks of the Olympio Archaean rocks Faults Formation record a transition from a SS40c 12.04.12 passive to an active margin and can be Figure 2 Paleoproterozoic geology of the Kimberley region. The inset shows the locations of the divided into upper and lower units North Australian Craton (NAC) and the Kimberley Craton (KC) (from Griffin et al., 2000). separated by alkaline volcanism at c. 1857 Ma and c. 1848 Ma (Blake et al., 1999, 2000). The turbiditic rocks form Hooper Orogeny (Griffin et al., 2000; Page and Hoatson, 2000; Page part of two submarine-fan systems in an evolving foreland basin, et al., 2001). with sediment derived from predominantly continental, granitic sources to the NW, the oldest at c. 1873 Ma and the youngest at c. Central zone of the Lamboo Province 1847 Ma (Hancock, 1991; Tyler, 2005; Tyler et al., 2005). The Halls Creek Group was deformed and metamorphosed during the 1835– The Central zone (Figure 2) is dominated by medium – high- 1805 Ma Halls Creek Orogeny, and were stitched to the central zone grade turbiditic metasedimentary and mafic volcanic and volcaniclastic by the 1820–1810 Ma granites of the Sally Downs Supersuite. rocks of the Tickalara Metamorphics, interpreted as an oceanic island arc developed at c. 1865 Ma (Figure 3; Sheppard et al., 1999; Griffin Hooper Orogeny et al., 2000). These were intruded by tonalitic sheets, and deformed and metamorphosed between c. 1865–1856 Ma and at 1850–1845 The Hooper Orogeny was recognised first in the Hooper Province Ma (Bodorkos et al., 1999, 2000a; Blake et al., 2000; Page et al., (Tyler and Griffin, 1993; Griffin et al., 1993), and took place between 2001). In the southern part of the Central zone, sedimentary rocks c. 1870 Ma and c. 1850 Ma.

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