Shaping the Australian crust over the last 300 million years: Insights from fission track thermotectonic imaging and denudation studies of key terranes
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Andrew J.W. Gleadow; Paul B. O'Sullivan; David A. Foster; Kerry Gallagher; Barry P. Kohn; Roderick Brown
- Source
- Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 49:697-717
- Subject
- Earth science
Continental crust
Elevation
Crust
Fission track dating
Physics::Geophysics
Thermochronology
Paleontology
Tectonics
Denudation
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geology
Terrane
- Language
- ISSN
- 1440-0952
0812-0099
Apatite fission track thermochronology is a well‐established tool for reconstructing the low‐temperature thermal and tectonic evolution of continental crust. The variation of fission track ages and distribution of fission track lengths are primarily controlled by cooling, which may be initiated by earth movements and consequent denudation at the Earth's surface and/or by changes in the thermal regime. Using numerical forward‐modelling procedures these parameters can be matched with time‐temperature paths that enable thermal and tectonic processes to be mapped out in considerable detail. This study describes extensive Australian regional fission track datasets that have been modelled sequentially and inverted into time‐temperature solutions for visualisation as a series of time‐slice images depicting the cooling history of present‐day surface rocks during their passage through the upper crust. The data have also been combined with other datasets, including digital elevation and heat flow, to image the denu...