PERMIAN EVOLUTION OF SANDSTONE COMPOSITION IN A COMPLEX BACK-ARC EXTENSIONAL TO FORELAND BASIN - THE BOWEN BASIN, EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Citation
Jc. Baker et al., PERMIAN EVOLUTION OF SANDSTONE COMPOSITION IN A COMPLEX BACK-ARC EXTENSIONAL TO FORELAND BASIN - THE BOWEN BASIN, EASTERN AUSTRALIA, Journal of sedimentary petrology, 63(5), 1993, pp. 881-893
Citations number
35
Categorie Soggetti
Geology
ISSN journal
00224472
Volume
63
Issue
5
Year of publication
1993
Pages
881 - 893
Database
ISI
SICI code
0022-4472(1993)63:5<881:PEOSCI>2.0.ZU;2-5
Abstract
The Bowen Basin is a Permo-Triassic, back-arc extensional to foreland basin that developed landward of an intermittently active continental volcanic arc associated with the eastern Australian convergent plate m argin. The basin has a complex, polyphase tectonic history that began with limited back-arc crustal extension during the Early Permian. This created a series of north-trending grabens and half grabens which, in the west, accommodated quartz-rich sediment derived locally from surr ounding, uplifted continental basement. In the east, coeval calc-alkal ine, volcanolithic-rich, and volcaniclastic sediment was derived from the active volcanic arc. This early extensional episode was followed b y a phase of passive thermal subsidence accompanied by episodic compre ssion during the late Early Permian to early Late Permian, with little contemporaneous volcanism. In the west, quartzose sediment was shed f rom stable, polymictic, continental basement immediately to the west a nd south of the basin, whereas volcanolithic-rich sediment that entere d the eastern side of the basin during this time was presumably derive d from the inactive, and possibly partly submerged, volcanic arc. Duri ng the late Late Permian, flexural loading and increased compression o ccurred along the eastern margin of the Bowen Basin, and renewed volca nism took place in the arc system to the east. Reactivation of this ar c led to westward and southward spread of volcanolithic-rich sediment over the entire basin. Accordingly, areas in the west that were earlie r receiving quartzose, craton-derived sediment from the west and south were overwhelmed by volcanolithic-rich, arc-derived sediment from the east and north. This transition from quartz-rich, craton-derived sedi ments to volcanolithic-rich, arc-derived sediments is consistent with the interpreted back-arc extensional to foreland basin origin for the Bowen Basin.