Amalgamation and Accretion of the Lachlan Orogen: Implications for Continental Crustal Growth and Recycling

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

0073638 Foster Classical orogenic belts have relatively narrow bands of varied rock types that can be related to various environments, such as foreland etc., however several major orogens significantly diverge from this pattern. The Lachlan Orogen of southeastern Australia, correlatives in Antarctica, parts of the Pan African in northeast Africa and others have an extremely wide expanse of monotonously similar oceanic assemblages, and effectively no foreland. The cause of this extreme width and how deformation patterns and ages relate to the tectonic settings of these orogens is controversial. This project will attempt to discriminate between several hypotheses and will involve considerable age dating of the deformation. The oceanic style of orogeny represented by the Lachlan orogen appears to be an unrecognized continental growth mechanism that has been important throughout earth history, therefore results of this study are expected to be applicable in a number of other orogens.