Low thermal Peclet number intraplate orogeny in central Australia

Abstract

The late Phanerozoic Alice Springs Orogen in central Australia is an archetypal intraplate orogen characterised by a dense, granulitic core exhumed from beneath a carapace comprising a highly radiogenic granitic mid-upper crust and sediments deposited in a shallow intracratonic basin. Exhumation occurred in large part along a crustal penetrative fault system, the Redbank Shear Zone, producing one of the largest gravity anomalies (~ 150 mgal) known from the continental interiors. The lithospheric strength implied by the preservation of this anomaly for more than 300 Myr raises the intriguing conundrum of what localised the intraplate deformation in the first place. Available biostratigraphic ..