The acraman impact structure: source of ejecta in late precambrian shales, South australia

A major probable impact structure occurs in middle Proterozoic dacitic volcanics in the Gawler Ranges, central South Australia. The structure has an inner depressed area about 30 kilometers in diameter that contains the Lake Acraman salina, an intermediate depression or ring about 90 kilometers in diameter, and a possible outer ring approximately 160 kilometers in diameter. Outcrops of dacite in Lake Acraman are intensely shattered and contain shatter cones and multiple sets of shock lamellac in quartz grains. The Acraman structure is the largest probable impact structure known in Australia and is the likely source of dacitic ejecta found in late Precambrian marine shales some 300 kilometers to the east.     

Impact ejecta horizon within late precambrian shales, adelaide geosyncline, South australia

A solitary layer of shattered crustal rock fragments has been traced over a distance of 260 kilometers within folded 600-million-year-old Precambrian marine shales of the Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia. The fragments consist entirely of acid to intermediate volcanics (approximately 1575 million years old) displaying shattered mineral grains, shock lamellae in quartz, and small shatter cones. Fragments reach 30 centimeters in diameter and show evidence of vertical fall emplacement. Available evidence points to derivation of the rock fragments from a distant hypervelocity impact into the Gawler Range Volcanics at Lake Acraman, approximately 300 kilometers west of the Adelaide Geosyncline.     

Fluid inclusion assemblages of the stratiform broken hill ore deposit, new South wales, australia

Minerals of the Broken Hill lode in New South Wales, Australia, have a rich assemblage of fluid inclusions. Most typically they contain a high-salinity aqueous liquid and a high-density carbon dioxide and methane gas. Northerly trending shear zones in the area are characterized by a distinct assemblage of inclusions. The inclusions provide a record of the sequence of metamorphic fluids since the period of high-grade metamorphism. Inclusions from the period of ore formation have been eliminated by repeated deformation and recrystallization.     

Mite-plant associations from the eocene of southern australia

Acarodomatia or "mite houses" are located on leaves of many present-day angiosperms and are inhabited by mites that may maintain leaf hygiene. Eocene deposits in southern Australia have yielded acarodomatia on fossil leaves of Elaeocarpaceae and Lauraceae and also contain oribatid mites with close affinities to those that inhabit the acarodomatia of the closest living relatives of the fossil plant taxa. The data indicate that mite-plant associations may have been widespread in southern Australia 40 million years ago.     

Iridium anomaly in the upper devonian of the canning basin, Western australia

A moderate iridium anomaly, about 20 times the local background, has been found in Upper Devonian rocks in the Canning Basin. It occurs at or near the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, which is known to be associated with a major massextinction event of global extent. The anomaly occurs in an extremely condensed limestone sequence laid down under quiet deepwater conditions. Its occurrence suggests a causal link with some form of meteoroid impact. Moreover, carbon isotope data indicate that a large reduction in biomass could have occurred at this level. However, the anomaly coincides with a stromatolite bed containing the fossil cyanobacterium Frutexites; iridium, platinum, iron, manganese, cobalt, arsenic, antimony, and cerium are preferentially concentrated in filaments of this organism, with concentrations ranging from two to five times that of the matrix. It is possible that Frutexites extracted these elements directly from seawater, without the need for their derivation from an extraterrestrial source.     

Breakup of pangaea and isolation of relict mammals in australia, South america, and madagascar

The composition of aboriginal land mammal faunas in Australia and New Guinea (prototherians and metatherians), South America (metatherians and eutherians) and Madagascar (eutherians only) is reconsidered in light of continental drift reconstructions of Mesozoic-Tertiary world paleogeography It is proposed that these three faunas represent successively detached samples of the evolving world mammal fauna as it existed when each of these land masses became faunally isolated from the rest of the world as a result of the progressive fragmentation of Pangaea. Isolation of aboriginal prototherians and metatherians in Australia and New Guinea may date from the Upper JurassicLower Cretaceous; isolation of aboriginal metatherians and eutherians in South America may date from the Middle Cretaceous-Upper Cretaceous; isolation of aboriginal eutherians in Madagascar may date from the Paleocene-Eocene.     

Isostasy in australia and the evolution of the compensation mechanism

A linear transfer function analysis has been applied to gravity and topographic data from Australia to calculate the isostatic response function of Dorman and Lewis. The Australian response function is considerably different from that calculated for the United States. The differences can be explained on the basis of an apparent evolution of the isostatic compensation mechanism in which viscoelastic creep occurs in the lithosphere and relaxes the initial long-wavelength elastic stresses.     

Precambrian columnar stromatolites in australia: morphological and stratigraphic analysis

The stratigraphic distribution in Australian Precambrian rocks of columnar stromatolites, organosedimentary structures formed by blue-green algae, has been investigated. Their morphology is being studied according to methods developed in Russia. The discovery of successive different assemblages supports not only regional but also intercontinental stratigraphic correlations which are in agreement with available isotopic datings.     

Algal stromatolites: deepwater forms in the devonian of Western australia

A diverse assemblage of algal stromatolites occurs in Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin, Western Australia. Some forms grew on fore-reef depositional slopes down to at least 45 meters below sea level and are believed to be products of deepwater nonskeletal algae. It is concluded that algal stromatolites in the stratigraphic record are not to be regarded as diagnostic evidence for deposition in very shallow water.     

Cretaceous vertical motion of australia and the australian- antarctic discordance

A three-dimensional model of mantle convection in which the known history of plate tectonics is imposed predicts the anomalous Cretaceous vertical motion of Australia and the present-day distinctive geochemistry and geophysics of the Australian-Antarctic Discordance. The dynamic models infer that a subducted slab associated with the long-lived Gondwanaland-Pacific converging margin passed beneath Australia during the Cretaceous, partially stagnated in the mantle transition zone, and is presently being drawn up by the Southeast Indian Ridge.     

Extensive volcanism associated with the separation of australia and antarctica

Alternating hard and soft layers characterize the Gull Rock and Tuit Members of the late Eocene Blanche Point Formation, South Australia. Originally the formation was mainly a mixture of volcanic ash, sponge spicules, and calcareous fossil remains, with hard layers produced later by selective silicification. It resembles Cretaceous sediments from western Europe and the eastern coast of the United States, and in each case it appears that alteration of volcanic ash produced smectite and clinoptilolite with release of silica that subsequently crystallized as opal-CT. The occurrence of similar deposits from New Zealand to as far west as Albany, Western Australia, indicates extensive volcanic activity south of Australia in the late Eocene resulting from rifting and separation from Antarctica.     

Crocodile with laterally compressed snout: first find in australia

A crocodilian skull exhibiting a high, laterally compressed snout has been found in a cave in north Queensland. No teeth are preserved, but elliptical alveoli suggest a ziphodont dentition. This is the first known occurrence of such a crocodilian in Australia and probably the most recent in the world. The specimen is not referable to any known species.     

Sudbury structure, ontario: some petrographic evidence for origin by meteorite impact

Unusual deformation structures, similar to those observed in rocks from known and suspected meteorite impact craters, are observed in inclusions of basement rock in the Onaping formation at Sudbury, Ontario. These features, which include planar sets in quartz parallel to the (0001) and (10ī3) planes, suggest that the Onaping formation consists of shocked and melted material deposited immediately after a meteorite impact which formed the Sudbury basin.