Abstract
The Kabadah Formation outcrops in central New South Wales as a thrust package 66km long, interleaved with Lower Silurian Canowindra Volcanics and situated between the Junee-Narromine and Molong Volcanic Belts of the Ordovician Macquarie Arc. The Kabadah Formation contains Early Silurian corals and Llandovery graptolites. Its provenance is complex, with detrital fragments of mafic-intermediate volcanic rocks, free crystals of pyroxene, chromite and ultramafic clasts, detrital volcanic quartz, garnet, and clasts of welded S-type rhyolitic volcanic rocks; and rare clasts from uplifted fold-belt rocks (granite and metamorphosed and deformed sediments). The variety of these clasts suggests that the Kabadah Formation records the Benambran collision of the Macquarie Arc with Ordovician quartz-rich sedimentary rocks, with detritus also derived from coeval Early Silurian mafic and felsic magmatism. The major source of detritus was from the short-lived emergent Fifield arc that formed from the subduction of an older backarc basin. The Kabadah Formation accumulated in an upward-shallowing Early Silurian marine basin between phases of the Benambran Orogeny.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 353-362 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Australian Journal of Earth Sciences |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 2-3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Benambran Orogeny
- Chromite
- Kabadah Formation
- Lachlan Orogen
- Macquarie Arc
- Silurian
- Supra-subduction zone