Australian Geology

Australia: The Land Where Time Began

The Australian Environment Geology

The Australian continent⁶

Australia is an extensive, low continent with an area of about 7.66 million km², and a mean height above the present sea level of 330 m, and 200 km² less than 200 m above sea level. The highest point on the continent is Mt Kosciuszko that rises to 2,227 m, not an impressive height on a world scale. According to Twidale⁶ Australia is a compact continent that has few major islands, inlets or embayments and a coastline of a bit less than 20,000 km. The ratio of shore length to land area of about 1 km of coast for every 390 km² (1:390), while the ratio of coast to land area of peninsula and insular Europe is 1:75. The Gulf of Carpentaria, Bonaparte Gulf and King Sound on the north coast, Exmouth Gulf and Shark Bay on the west and Port Phillip Bay and gulf St. Vincent and Spencer Gulf on the south. Tasmania and Kangaroo Island in the south Fraser Island on the east, and Groote EyIandt, Melville Island and Bathurst Island off the north coast are the only major islands. Endorheic streams that flow to basins of internal drainage serve more than half of the continental area. The Lake Eyre catchment accounts for 1.3 million km² of central and northeastern Australia. Exoreic streams (rivers that flow to the sea) serve less than half the continent, with the River Murray being of notable length but has a low discharge rate as for much of its length it passes through arid areas.

Duricrust⁶

From sources 1-5

The Australian continent is unique in a number of ways. It is the driest, flattest, oldest, it has the most erratic climate of any continent, and much of it experiences great extremes of rainfall both during a year and from year to year. As a result of this, poor soil, arid and unpredictable climate over most of the continent, the plants, and therefore the animals that depend on them, have evolved into a unique flora and fauna.

Lack of volcanic or seismic activity leading to mountain building over much of the continent for many millions of years means that what mountain ranges there were have been worn down by erosion to mere stubs of their former glory. The soil over much of Australia, especially the dry central parts, have not been renewed by volcanic activity for a very long time and are impoverished compared to soils from most other parts of the world. Another factor in the formation of fertile soils that was absent in Australia was glaciers. During the ice ages of the last 2.6 million years, glaciers covered much of the Northern Hemisphere, grinding unweathered rock into fine particles that became soil enriched with new minerals when the glaciers retreated. During this time period Australia had cold windy periods at times of Northern Hemisphere glaciations, but no, or very limited, glaciers. Any that formed were on the high country that is such a small part of the Australian landscape.

After being recycled many times over much of the history of the Earth, with no new rock added by volcanism, the soils of arid Australia have been weathered and leached more than any others making them the most nutrient-deficient soils in the world. And most of Australia spent many millions of years covered by seas. In many places these seas were eventually cut off from the ocean and evaporation formed huge salt deposits which were later buried. So added to this impoverished state of the soils there are vast areas where there are salt deposits beneath the surface which means when land is cleared for agriculture the removal of deep-rooted trees and shrubs mean the water table rises. By the time the water table gets close to the surface it has passed through these salt layers and so causes salinisation in the root zone and eventually at the surface, which makes the land useless for agriculture.

A place where salt is a serious problem is the West Australian wheat belt.

Landforms

The geologic history and its climatic contrasts are reflected in the landforms. There are 3 major structural components, the stable Western Shield, the gently warped Central Basin, and the ancient orogeny of the Eastern Uplands, which have been rejuvenated by differential uplift in Tertiary and later times. The result is the vast plains and plateaux of the Australian landscape. There are not many areas above about 1700 m, and even at Mt Kosciusko, the highest point on the continent, it is less then 3000 m above sea level. Not high compared with the mountains in other parts of the world.

According to Twidale & Campbell (Source 5), the lack of recent earth movement is a main cause of the widespread prevalence of relatively low-lying plains. The Late Palaeozoic was the time when the most recent episode of mountain building occurred in Australia, with the deformation and uplift of the Eastern Highlands. There have been many episodes of warping and faulting, that were widespread but minor, since the orogenesis that produced the Eastern Highlands. The authors suggest that about 30 million years would be required to base-level a continent of the size of Australia, after allowing for isostatic compensation that would result from erosional unloading, allowing plenty of time since the last major orogenesis for the formation of extensive plains by weathering and erosion. According to Twidale & Campbell, the compact shape of the Australian continent has contributed to the tendency for widespread plantation, with few major indentations or embayments along the extensive coastline. This meant that as sea level changes occurred the resulting changes of river behaviour were limited to the margins of the continent, with the coastal rivers being the only rivers affected, the inland rivers being shielded from such impacts. On the east coast the short, steep rivers have not regressed as much as would be expected, some having eroded headwords by about 100 km in about 60 My. In the later Tertiary the Lake Eyre Basin began to subside, resulting in the internal (endogenetic) drainage system that drains much of inland Australia. Depositional plains are also a prominent feature of inland Australia (Twidale & Campbell, Source 5).

These components have determined the outline of the continent and the overall pattern of drainage and relief. In the east, the peripheral uplift in the Eastern Uplands has resulted in the highest ground being near the coast.

In the west of the continent, there is a narrow plain between the faulted edge of the shield and the coast. In the north-west the highest ground is in the marginal line of the Hamersley, Kimberley and Arnhem Land Plateaux. The external drainage on 3 sides of the continent is restricted to a narrow strip around the edge of the continent on 3 sides totaling about 1/3 of the continental area.

The Central Basin has 2 major inward-draining drainage systems, the interior drainage towards lake Eyre, and the Murray-Darling system. The Murray-Darling system has maintained a connection to the sea, mostly because of the extra water draining from the south-eastern part of the Great Dividing Range.

The structure of the drainage systems, where the coastal areas, where most of the rain falls, is drained to the sea, and the inward flowing drainage of the rest of the continent, that receives very little rain, conspires in such a way that vast tracts of central Australia depend for their water on the intermittent floods that are channeled from the monsoonal areas of northern Australia along normally dry channels. While the monsoon rarely fails completely, the amount of rain delivered to the north varies. It is only in very wet years that the water reaches all the way to Lake Eyre, especially as a lot of the water is absorbed into the dry channel beds and evaporates in the hot dry air of the interior long before it reaches Lake Eyre. Away from the ameliorating influence of the coast the temperatures can get very high in central Australia during summer.

Nearly all of the area inland of the peripheral drainage systems generates less the about 3 cm per year of run-off. As aridity has increased any rivers that had existed on the low gradient sandy surfaces of the shield areas have disintegrated or disappeared entirely. A similar condition, no rivers, occurs also on the Nullarbor Plain and the in the Simpson Desert.

These 3 major structural components are convenient divisions for describing the landform assemblages of Australia.

Geology

Acraman Impact Horizon see Ediacaran Fauna

Accretionary Prism

Adelaide Fold Belt See Neoproterozoic Australia

Adelaide Rift Complex (=Adelaide Geosyncline) See Neoproterozoic Australia

Adelaidean (Late Proterozoic) Basins in Australia - Stratigraphy, Correlation and Sedimentary History

Adventure Tracks

Alaska Subduction Zone – Tsunamic Structures in a Creeping Section

Albany-Fraser Orogen, Western Australia – Transformation of the Margin of a Craton from the Archaean During Formation of a Basin and Magmatism in the Proterozoic

The Central Alpine Fault, New Zealand, New On-Fault Evidence of a Great Earthquake in AD 1717

Amelia Creek Impact Structure

Ancient Australian Landscapes

Ancient Ecosystem in the Dresser Formation Dated to About 3.48 Ga in the Pilbara, Western Australia

Anomalous Zones the Size of Continents of Low Seismic Velocity at the Base of the Mantle

Antarctica

Antarctica - Before and After Gondwana

Antarctica - Borchgrevink Event

Antarctica - East Antarctica, Major Components

Antarctica – Mobile Magma Beneath the Ice

Antarctica Volcanic Eruption the Largest in the Holocene – Timing and Widespread effects

Antarctica - West Antarctica, Major Components

Antarctica - Geological History
Antarctica Has a Huge Mantle Plume Beneath it, Which Might Explain its High Degree of Instability
Antarctica - Palaeozoic Orogenic Events
Antarctica - Precambrian Orogenic Events

Antarctica - Role in Global Environment
The Earth – A Planetary System that Has Been Evolving

East Antarctica - Relative Sea-Level Rise During Oligocene Glaciation

Antarctic and Greenland Ice Cores Directly Linked at the Toba Eruption - 74 ka BP

Antarctic Weathering and Carbonate Compensation at the Transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene

Archaean

Archaean Continental Crust and Subcontinental lithospheric Mantle – Coupled Evolution

Archaean Crust formation in Western Australia – Secular Change Recorded

Arctic Ocean Giant Caldera – Evidence of the Catastrophic Event

Arcoona Plateau and the Tent Hills

Argoland - Argo Abyssal Plain

Aridification of Australia

Arnhem Land - Arnhem Block

A-tents (pop-ups)

Atmospheric Pressure of Earth 2.7 Ga Constrained to Less than Half of Modern Levels

Australia and Antarctica – Early Opening, New Inferences and Consequences for the Region

Australia Separates from Antarctica

Drifting Australia A Timeline

Australia Drifting - a timeline of changes

Australia - Geological Framework

Australia - Morphotectonics

Australia - Physique

Australian Plate

Australia - Plates and Lineaments

The Unique Influence of Australia on the Global Sea Level in 2010-2011

Australian Alps

Australian-Antarctic Depression

Australian Continent

Australian Continent – the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Transition and Radial Anisotropy Beneath the Continent

Australian Landscapes - Cretaceous to recent

Australian Palaeoproterozoic

Australian Mesoproterozoic

Australian Neoproterozoic

Australian Palaeoclimate and Palaeogeography - Jurassic

Australian Proterozoic Evolution - Palaeomagnetic Constraints

    North Australian Cratonic Assemblage

    South Australian Cratonic Assemblage

    West Australian Cratonic Assemblage

Australian Soils

Australian Tectonic and Metallogenic Evolution - A Summery Pt.1

Australian Tectonic and Metallogenic Evolution - A Summery Pt.2

Australian Tectonic and Metallogenic Evolution - A Summery Pt.3

Australian Volcanoes

Australian Western Margin – Evolution During the Supercontinent of Rodinia and Gondwana

Banded Iron Formation - Hydrothermal and Resedimented Origins of Precursor Sediments

Basal Drag from Convecting Mantle Shifted the Cratonic Root Beneath North America

Basins

Basin Development Eastern Australia

Baxter Cliffs -

Bedout High

Bedrock Canyon – Amplification by Wind Incision

The Blue Mountains

Breakup of Gondwana - India from Antarctica and Australia

Breakup of Gondwana - Australia from Antarctica

Gondwana Breakup Implications – K-Ar Dating of Fault Gouge in the Northern Sydney Basin, NSW, Australia

Broken Bay - example of geological history during times of low sea level

Bunda Cliffs - Nullarbor Plain

Bunda Plateau - Nullarbor Plain

Bungle Bungles

Cambrian Marine Shelfal Settings – Widespread mixing in the Early to Middle Cambrian

Canning Basin

Cape York Peninsula

Capricorn Orogeny

Capricorn Orogen, Australia – In-situ U-Pb Geochronology of Xenotime and Monazite, Abra Polymetallic Deposit

Carbon Fluxes from Land to Ocean - Anthropic Perturbations

Central Australia

Central Australian Basins

Central Australian Groundwater Discharge Zone

Centralian Superbasin See Neoproterozoic Australia

Chambers Pillar

Chemical Weathering

Collision of East and West Gondwana

Columbia

Continental Domain Reconstruction – 200 Ma to Present

Continent Growth Linked to 2-step Rise of Atmospheric Oxygen

Cooper Creek - Climate Change and Aeolian-Fluvial Interaction and Development of Source-Bordering Dunes over the Past 100 ka

Cooper Creek Fan - Late Quaternary and Fluvial Interactions

Core Outer Layer Stratified by a Sunken Impactor

Core Rotational Dynamics and Geological Events

Cradle Mountain

The Earliest Evolved Crust on Earth Generated in Setting like Iceland

Cryogenian

Cryogenian Datangpo Formation, South China - Reconstruction of Palaeo-Redox Conditions and Early Sulphur Cycling

Earth’s longest continental Hotspot Track – Lithospheric Controls on Magma Composition

Cryogenian Dating

Cryogenian-Ediacaran Transition - Organic Carbon Isotope Constraints on the Dissolved Organic Carbon (Doc) Reservoir

Cryosphere

Delamerian orogeny

Delamerian Supercycle

Deserts

Devil's Marbles

Drifting

Drifting - Changes on the Continent

Drifting - Changes to drainage systems resulting from rifting

Drifting - direction change in the Middle Cretaceous and Middle Eocene

Drought, Groundwater Storage and Declining Stream Flow in Southwestern Australia

Duricrust

Early Earth – Prebiotic Chemistry and Atmospheric Warming by an Active Young Sun

Early Earth and an Atmospheric Solar Shock

Ediacara Member, Rawnsley Quartzite, South Australia, Depositional and Preservational Environments – Assessment of palaeoenvironmental Proxies and Timing of ‘Ferruginisation’

Earthquake Distribution

Earthquakes

Earthquake Nias-Simeuline – Deformation and Slip along the Sunda Megathrust 2015

Hadean Granites Formation by Melting of Igneous Crust

Himalayan Thrust Fault – Main Thrust Fault Unzipped by Gorkha Earthquake of 2015

Eastern Australia

Ediacaran Outgassing – Evidence for a Spike in Outgassing of Carbon from the Mantle in the Ediacaran

Effects of water from the Great Artesian Basin on soil

Elatina Glaciation, Late Cryogenian (Marinoan Epoch), South Australia – Sedimentary Facies and Palaeoenvironments

Elatina Formation

Earliest Earth – Minimum Melting Conditions Revealed by Zircon Thermometer

Emeishan Large Igneous Province

End-Permian Climate Systematic Swings Resulting from Outgassing of Carbon and Sulphur from the Siberian Traps

Erosional and destructional surfaces

Exhumed surfaces and forms

Low Friction and Fault Weakening Revealed by Increasing Sensitivity of Tremor to Tidal Stress

Flinders Ranges

Flinders Ranges - Deep Erosion and River Patterns

The Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia - the Paralana Hot Springs, an Active Amagmatic Hydrothermal System

Flood Basalts -Bigger and Badder

Double Flood Basalts and Plume Head Separation at the Discontinuity at 660-km depth

Flood Basalt Provinces Containing Mafic Volcaniclastic Deposits - Review

Flood Basalts, Continental Breakup and Dispersal of Gondwana - Periodic Migration of Upwelling Mantle Flows (Plumes)

Flood Basalt Provinces Containing Mafic Volcaniclastic Deposits - Review

Deccan Flood Basalts - Early and Late Igneous Pulses and a High ³He Plume Origin

Deccan Volcanism - Chemostratigraphic Evidence from the Marine Osmium Isotope Record

Flood Basalts, Continental Breakup and Dispersal of Gondwana - Periodic Migration of Upwelling Mantle Flows (Plumes)

Siberian Flood Basalts

Deccan Volcanism State Shift at Cretaceous-Palaeogene Boundary Possibly Impact Induced

Siberian Traps – Volcanic Pulses as inferred from Permo-Triassic Geomagnetic Secular Variations

Siberian Flood Basalts - High Tritium Plume Origin and Temporal Spatial Evolution

The Siberian Traps - Magnitude and Consequences of Volatile release

Siberian Flood Basalt Province Doubled - West Siberian Basin ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar Dates

Siberian Traps Flood Basalts - Rapid Eruption at Permian-Triassic Boundary

Flood Basalts - Trigger for End-Triassic Extinction

Fluvial Landforms

Gawler Craton

Western Gawler Craton, Australia – Shear Zone architecture in the Christie Domain, Geophysical Appraisal of an Orogenic Terrain that is Poorly Exposed

A Geodynamo of Hadean to Paleoarchaean Age recorded by Single Zircon Crystals

Geological History see more

Gilgais

Glaciers – Substantial mass Loss in the Tien Shan over the past 50 Years

Glaciation on Baltica in the Late Neoproterozoic - the Timing Constrained by Detrital Zircon from Geochronology in the Hedmark Group, Southeast Norway

Glikson Impact Structure

Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal – Slip Pulse and Resonance of the Kathmandu Basin during the 2015 event

Gorkha Earthquake – Himalayan Strain Reservoir Inferred from Limited Degree of Slip after the Event

Gosse's bluff

Gondwana

Great Artesian Basin of Australia – connectivity with the Underlying Basins, and the Cainozoic Cover

Great Australian Basin - Opalisation

Great Australian Bight

Great Barrier Reef

Great Dividing Range

The Great Oxidation Event - Evolution of Multicellularity Coincided with an Increase of Cyanobacterial Diversification

East Greenland – North Atlantic Igneous Province

Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Complex

Groundwater Geochemistry and Associated hardpans in Southwestern Australia

The Habitats of Early Life – Processes on the Young Earth

Hadean Age Confirmed for a Zircon Crystallised Following the Magma Ocean by Atom-Probe Tomography

Hadean Plate Boundary Interactions are Suggested by Low Heat Flow that is Inferred From >4 Ga Zircons

Hampton Range - Nullarbor Plain

Heavitree Quartzite See Neoproterozoic Australia

Hiawatha Glacier in Northwest Greenland – A Large Impact Crater

Iapetus Ocean

Largest impact zone in the World Believed Uncovered in Central Australia by ANU Researchers

Regulation of Ice Stream Flow Through Subglacial Formation of Gas Hydrates

Indo-Australian Plate

Independent Evaluation of Conflicting Microspherule Results from Different Investigations of the Impact Hypothesis for the Younger Dryas

Interglacial Carbonates, Umberatana Group, Flinders Ranges, South Australia

    Mt Jacob Region

    Oodnaminta Hut and Illinawortina regions

Jack Hills, Western Australia

Jack Hills Detrital Zircons Internal Zoning & U-Th-Pb Chemistry – Mineral Record of Magmatism in the Early Archaean to Mesoproterozoic 4,348-1,576 Ma

Jack Hills - Light Carbon Reservoir Recorded in Zircon-Hosted Diamond

Jack Hills Hadean Crust – Ophiolitic Trondhjemites - A Possible Analogue for Felsic ‘Crust’

Jack Hills and Mt. Narryer, Earth’s Oldest Detritus – Tracing provenance and recrystallisation processes with an In Situ Sm-Nd study of monazite

Jack Hills - Mineral Inclusions in 4 Ga Zircons Provide Constraints on Hadean Geodynamics

Jack Hills, Western Australia – Events from the Proterozoic Recorded in Quartzite Cobbles, New Restraints and Source of 4.0 Ga Zircons

Jack Hills Zircons – Hadean Crustal Evolution Revisited, New Constraints From Pb-Hf Systematics

Jurassic Sedimentary and fossil successions in Australia

Palaeomagnetic Restraints on the Proterozoic Tectonic Evolution of Australia

Terranes

The Great Journey North

    Stages on the Way

The Great Journey South

Hamersley Range

Mid-late Holocene Variability of sea level in Eastern Australia

Mid-Ocean Ridges – Small Scale Convection and Plate Motion Control Mixing

Hunter-Bowen Supercycle

Ice Ages

Australian Bedrock Erosion - Exceptionally Low Rates and the likelihood of pre-Pleistocene Landscapes based on 10Be and 26Al evidence

Inselbergs

Island Arc Systems - Morphology

Israelite Plains - Nullarbor Plain

Journey Back Through Time

Kalbarri Coast

Kanimblan Orogeny

Kanimblan Cycle

Katherine Gorge

Kimberley Block

Kimberley Region, WA, PalaeoproterozoiccPost-Collisional, High-K Felsic Igneous Rocks, Tectonic ImplicationsPost-Collisional, High-K Felsic Igneous Rocks, Tectonic Implications

Kimberly Region, Western Australia, Glaciation in the Late Neoproterozoic - an ¹⁷O

King's Canyon

Lachlan Fold Belt (Lachlen Orogeny)

Lachlan Orogen - Crustal Complexity revealed from Telesceismic Receiver Functions

Lachlan Supercycle

Lakes

Lake Eyre-tidal signatures found-previously thought to be exclusively marine structures

Lanai Tsunami Impact About 105 Ka? Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Southeast Coast, Australia

Landforms

Large Igneous Provinces

Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) in Australia – Implications for Mantle Dynamics Through Geological Time

Large Igneous provinces - Essential Criteria – Distinguish a LIP from a non-LIP

Large Igneous Provinces - Essential Attributes of LIPs - Magmatism Duration

Large Igneous Provinces – Explosive Basaltic Volcanism

Large Igneous Provinces – Intraplate Tectonic Setting

Large Igneous Provinces – Intrusive Beneath Sedimentary Basins, an Example from Exmouth Plateau, NW Australia

Lower-Mantle Water Reservoir Implied by the Extreme Stability of a Hydrous Aluminosilicate

Linear Dune Formation: Local Wind Rifting or Longitudinal Elongation - Strzelecki Desert, Central Australia

LIPs - Brito-Arctic flood basalts/North Atlantic Igneous Province

LIPs - The Caribbean-Columbian Plateau and Madagascar flood basalts

LIPs - Central Atlantic Magmatic Province

LIPs - Deccan Traps

LIPs - Ethiopian and Columbia River flood basalts

LIPs - Karoo & Ferrar traps

LIPs - Ontong Java Plateau

LIPs - The Panjal Volcanics and Emeishan flood basalts

LIPs - Paraná and Etendeka flood basalts

LIPs - Siberian Traps

Mantle Flow on a Large Scale Revealed by Global Dynamic Topography Observations to Have a Limited Influence

Deep mantle plume - Convective Upwelling beneath the Pacific Ocean

Mantle Plume Head - Influence on Dynamics of Retreating Subduction Zone
Mantle Plumes - Are They Periodic?

Mantle Plumes – the Persistent Myth

High Mantle Temperatures after Rifting Resulting from Continental Insulation

Main Himalayan Thrust – Rate of Convergence Across the Nepal Himalaya and Interseismic Coupling on the MHT, implications for Seismic Hazard

Major Flow Regime Changes in the Middle and Late Quaternary in Eastern Central Australia

Older and Hotter Mantle - Geodynamics of the Mantle

MAPCIS - Massive Australian Precambrian-Cambrian Impact Structure

Marinoan Glaciation

Marinoan Snowball Earth Glaciation – Ice Sheet Fluctuations that were Orbitally Forced

Mass Movements of Materials

Megathrust Linked to Active Subduction Beneath the Indo-Burman Ranges

Mawson Continent

Mesoproterozoic Plume-Modified Orogenesis in Eastern Precambrian Australia

Millennial-Scale Landslide record in Andes Consistent with Being Triggered by Earthquakes

Mt Babbage, Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia

Mt Paektu (Changbaishan in China) – Evidence for Partial Melt in the Crust Beneath Mt Paektu, a Supervolcano, North Korea and China

Mountain Uplift and Global Cooling

Mount Connor

Mount Kinahan Sandstone See Neoproterozoic Australia

Mt Lofty Ranges

Musgrave Block - also

Musgravian Orogeny

Musgrave Province

A Sillimanite-Bearing Quartzite from Mt Narryer, Western Australia with a High Abundance of Grains and Age-distribution of Detrital Zircons from the Early Archaean

Narryer Gneiss Complex, Western Australia – SHRIMP U-Pb Geochronology

Neogene

Neoproterozoic Australia

Neoproterozoic Basaltic Magmatism, South-Central Australia Ion Microprobe U-Pb Ages and Implications for Rodinia Breakup

Newell's Hypothesis

New England Fold Belt

New Volcanic Province – Inventory of Subglacial Volcanoes in West Antarctica

Ninetyeast Ridge – Active Faulting and Its relation to the Deformation of the Indo-Australian Plate

North and West of the Gawler Craton

North Australian Craton – Reworking in the Grenvillian of late Palaeoproterozoic Crust of the Southern NAC, Central Australia, Implications for the Assembly of Australia in the Mesoproterozoic

Northwestern Australia and East Africa – A Deglaciation Event in the Early Permian between these 2 Landmasses

Nuccaleena Formation, South Australia - Testing Models for Post glacial Deposition of 'Cap Dolostone'

Nullarbor Plain

Ocean Arcs – Generation of Continental Crust

Oceanography

Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 - Lithium Isotope Evidence of Enhanced Weathering

Oceanic Crustal Thickness Decrease After Breakup of Pangaea

Open-System Dynamics and Mixing in Magma Mushes

Pacific Ocean Volcanism Related to Deformation Linked to the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend

The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) – Shallow Marine Response to Climate Change in Salisbury Embayment, USA

Palaeodrainage

Palaeogene

Northwest Australia – Evidence for Synchrony of marine and terrestrial ecosystems that is driven by climate

Palaeozoic Era

Pangaea

Pangaea - A Proposed Formation

Pediments

Permian-Triassic Neo-Tethyan Margin of Gondwana – Catastrophic Environmental transition

Perth Basin

Pidingaa Formation -Formation - Nullarbor Plain

Physical Weathering

Pilbara Craton

Pilbara OPS

Pinnacle Desert see Nambung National Park see Perth Basin - Cervantes-Jurien Area

Plate Tectonics

Plate Motion Velocities – Palaeomagnetic Evidence for Modern-Like Velocities at 3.2 Ga

Pleistocene Megafauna Extinctions – Legacy on Nutrient Availability in Amazonia

Polar Wander Linked to Climate Change

Tectonism, Climate and Geomorphology

Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary Geology, South Australia - Ocean Basin formation, Seawater Chemistry & Organic Evolution

Precambrian Heat Flow

Precambrian Ice Age

Precambrian Tectonics

Profiles of the southern continents

Propagating Rifts and Microplates

Proterozoic Australia and Cainozoic Antarctica - Association of Sulphate Evaporites, Stromatolitic Carbonates and Glacial Sediments

Pyramid Hill

Ranges

Record of 3.8 Billion Years of Sea Floor Spreading, Subduction and Accretion – Recognition of Ocean Plate Stratigraphy in Accretionary Orogens Through the History of the Earth

Recycled Selenium Records Ocean-Atmosphere Oxygenation in Lavas Influenced by Hot Spots

Regimes - Innamincka Regime See Australian Palaeogeography

Regimes - Potoroo See Australian Palaeogeography

The Rhynie Chert – Stratigraphic setting and taphonomy

Rifting

Continental Rifts & Rifted Margins

Narrow Rifts - General Characteristics

Riverine Plains

Rodinia

Roe Plains - Nullarbor Plain

Salt

Scraped by flat bed Subduction

Separation-Drainage Changes

Sheet Fractures

Sandstone Landforms – Shaped by Negative Feedback between Stress and Erosion

Siberian Traps- End Permian Mass Extinction Confirmed to have Resulted from Voluminous Magmatism Before, During and After Extinction Event

Simpson Desert

Slab Melting Beneath the Cascade Arc Driven by Dehydration of Altered Oceanic Peridotite

Slab Stagnation in Shallow Lower Mantle Linked to Increased Mantle Viscosity

Slope Stability near Wollongong, Australia - the Influence of Debris Mantles and Local Climatic Variations

Snowball Earth

Snowball Earth - an Interglacial? Dynamic Behaviour of Ice in the Chuos Formation, Namibia

Snowball or Slushball Earth

Snowball Earth - Evidence of Low 18O Magmatism During Rifting of a Supercontinent in South China

Soom Shale - South Africa

Southeast Australia – Multiple Felsic Events in Volcanism Later than 10 Ma: Inputs in Appraising Magmatic Models that are Proposed

Southern Ocean

Siberia and Laurentia – Long-Lived Connection between Southern Siberia and Northern Laurentia in the Proterozoic

The Southwestern Indian Ridge - Continuous exhumation of rocks derived from the Mantle for 11 My

Southwest Tasmania

Stability of Australia

Stirling Range - Koi Kyeunu-ruff

Strzelecki Desert & Tirari Desert – Timing of Linear Dune Activity

Stromatolites from the Neoproterozoic in Glaciogenic Successions, Kimberley Region, Western Australia - Evidence of a Younger Marinoan Glaciation

Strzelecki & Tirari Deserts in Australia – Characterisation of Aeolian Sediments

Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts, Australia - Timing of Linear Dune Activity

Strzelecki and Tirari Deserts - Constraining Soil Formation in Linear Dunes

Sturtian Glaciation

Subducted Crust Stored in the Mantle for Billions of Years

Subduction-Induced Mantle Flow Driving Yellowstone Plume Bifurcation

Subduction Zones
Subduction Zones - Components

Subduction Zones - Structure

Subduction Zones - Variation of Characteristics

Submarine Canyons

Whiter the Supercontinent Cycle

Supercontinents

Supercontinent cycle

Supercontinent Cycle & Icehouse to Greenhouse Cycle

Supercontinent Cycle & Mantle Convection

Supercontinents and Superplume Events

Super Eruptions and Super Volcanoes (Megacalderas)

Superplumes – Fine-Scale Ultra-Low Velocity Zone Layering and Core-Mantle Boundary and Superplumes

Superplumes – A Geochemical and Petrological view of Mantle Plume

Superplumes – Global Circulation of Material and Petrogenesis of Superplume Rocks

Superplumes – Material Circulation Over Time

Superplumes - Multiscale Seismic Tomography of Mantle Plumes and Subducting Slabs

Superplumes – Past-Perovskite Investigated by First Principles

Superplumes – Post-Perovskite Phase Transition and the Nature of the Dʺ Layer

Superplumes – Structure of the Earth – Thermal and Compositional

Superplumes - Seismological constraints on the structure of the Core of the Earth

Superplumes – Subduction Zone – the Water Channel to the Mantle

Sydney Basin

Sydney Basin – Constraining Timing of Brittle Deformation and Fault Gouge

Tangaroan Eruptions - Submarine Volcanic Eruption of Highly Vesicular Pumice - Foam

Tasman Fold Belt System

Tasman Peninsula

Tectonic Landforms

Tasman region and island biota evolution – tectonic context

Tasmanides of Eastern Australia - Refining Accretionary Orogen Models

Terra Australis Orogen

Terranes

Terrestrial Permafrost – the Threat from Thawing

Tidal Waterfalls - Horizontal waterfalls

Timeline of Australian Volcanoes

All Toba Tephra Occurrences across Peninsular India Belong to the 75,000 Yr B.P. Eruption

Toba Eruption 74 ka BP – Direct Linking between Ice Cores from Greenland and Antarctica

Tookoonooka Crater

Townsend Quartzite See Neoproterozoic Australia

Transform and strike-Slip Faults-Continental

Triple Junction Stability

Tweed Volcano

Uluru - Ayre's Rock

Vaughn Springs Quartzite See Neoproterozoic Australia

Volcanic Drumbeat Seismicity – Stick-Slip Motion and Magmatic Friction Melting

Volcanoes

Volcano-Sedimentary Record of Africa, India and Australia - Evidence of Global and Local Sea Level and Continental Freeboard Changes

Volcanology

The Warrumbungles

Weathering

The West Antarctic Ice Shelf warming from beneath

Western Gondwana Craton – Modification by Plume-Lithosphere Interaction

Westward Subduction Beneath the Australian East Coast

Wilson's Bluff Limestone - also

Western Tethys – Glacial Dropstones during the Late Aptian-Early Albian Cold Snap – Palaeoclimate and Palaeogeographic Implications for the Mid-Cretaceous

A Review of Wilson Cycle Plate Margins – Role in Continental Breakup Along Sutures for Plumes

Wolfe Creek Crater

Wylie Scarp - Nullarbor Plain

Yilgarn Craton

Yilgarn Craton – Structure of Detrital Zircon Within about 3 Ga Metasedimentary Rocks: Elucidation of Hadean Source Terranes by Analysis of Principal Components

Southern Yilgarn Craton - Aeolian Influence on Landforms and Soils, Southwestern Australia