The architecture of Gondwana rifting in southeastern Australia: evidence from apatite fission track thermochronology

Abstract

Apatite fission track data indicate that the boundary between the Kanmantoo and Lachlan Fold Belts in western Victoria, Australia was reactivated as a transfer fault during Mesozoic rifting. Reactivation of this zone of crustal weakness probably determined the location of the Tasman Fracture Zone of the southeast Indian Ridge, controlled the shape of the Otway Basin, and influenced the Cretaceous denudation history of western Victoria. When Australia and Antarctica are reconstructed along the trace of the Tasman Fracture Zone the reactivated tectonic boundary in Victoria lines up with the Leap Year Fault in northern Victoria Land. The existence of this tectonic boundary and its effect in def..