Intraplate deformation in central Australia, the link between subsidence and fault reactivation

Abstract

Central Australia has experienced two intraplate orogenic events involving significant north-south shortening: the late Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian Petermann Orogeny and the Devonian to Carboniferous Alice Springs Orogeny. In each event pre-existing structures inherited from Mesoproterozoic terrain amalgamation were reactivated and basement rocks exhumed from beneath thick sedimentary successions accumulated in the Centralian Superbasin. The pattern of fault reactivation during these events shows a striking similarity to the pattern of subsidence in the overlying basin. Immediately prior to the Petermann Orogeny, the Centralian Superbasin was thickest in the vicinity of the Musgrave Blo..