Traversing Terranes: The Australides
We discuss the Australides, the orogenic belt that covers eastern Australia, New Zealand, East and West Antarctica, the Cape region of Africa, and South America, and summarize its tectonic history since the Neoproterozoic. A biotic analysis using palaeodi
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Traversing Terranes: The Australides
Abstract We discuss the Australides, the orogenic belt that covers eastern Australia, New Zealand, East and West Antarctica, the Cape region of Africa, and South America, and summarize its tectonic history since the Neoproterozoic. A biotic analysis using palaeodistributional data is used to determine relationships between areas within the Australides. We integrate the palaeobiogeographic (phylogenetic) and tectonic histories in order to establish the extent in space and time of any Weddellian Province, and undertake an analysis of phylogenetic data (cladograms) to determine whether area relationships are driven by tectonostratigraphic terranes or by cratons and cratonic basins.
2.1 Introduction A number of names have been used to describe a Neoproterozoic to Late Mesozoic orogenic belt that occurred along the palaeo-Pacific and Iapetus margins and later the Pacific margin of Gondwana. Vaughan et al. (2005) introduced the informal name “Australides” to describe the orogenic belt found in eastern Australia, New Zealand, East and West Antarctica, the Cape region of Africa, and South America (Table 2.1). Cawood (2005) termed this belt the “Terra Australis orogeny” and named the latest Triassic/Permian phase as the “Gondwanides orogeny”. The term “Tasmanides” described the Neoproterozoic to Carboniferous orogens of eastern Australia (Foster and Gray 2000; Glen 2005; Rosenbaum 2018). These names refer to different elements of a set of related events. The most restricted in both space and time is the Tasmanides orogen of eastern Australia. Both the Australides and Terra Australis orogens are Gondwana wide, but the Terra Australis orogen ends in the Triassic (230 Ma) with the final assembly of Pangaea, while the Australides orogen lasts until the breakup of Eastern Gondwana in the Cretaceous (100 Ma). Indeed, it might be argued that the Australides is ongoing in New Zealand and South America.
Electronic Supplementary Material The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/ 978-3-030-51773-1_2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C. Ebach, B. Michaux, Biotectonics, SpringerBriefs in Evolutionary Biology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51773-1_2
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Table 2.1 Major events of Gondwana tectonics (570 Ma–present) and proposed correlations Australia NZ East Antarctica West Antarctica Southern Andes Kaikoura Andean orogeny orogeny Extension Extension Extension Extension Andean orogeny Rangitata Peninsula orogeny Chonide orogeny orogeny Assembly of MBL Brook Street Beacon Supergroup Gympie terrane terrane Hunter Bowen orogeny Extension Older intrusives of the Cuyania/ Lachlan – New Western Precordillera and Amundsen Province England orogeny Province Chilenia terranes (MBL) Tuhua Ross Province (MBL) South Patagonia orogeny Eastern Domain (AP) Pampean orogeny Ross-Delamerian Robertson Bay turbidites EWM orogeny Bowers Terrane Wilson Mobile Belt AP An
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