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
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.