Palaeozoic intraplate crustal anatexis in the Mount Painter Province, South Australia: Timing, thermal budgets and the role of crustal heat production

Abstract

The effect of radiogenic heat production within the crust on thermal processes such as crustal anatexis is generally disregarded as bulk geochemical models suggest that crustal heat generation rates are too low to effect significant heating. However, the Mount Painter Province in northern South Australia is characterized by a total crustal contribution to surface heat flow of more than twice the global average. The province is composed dominantly of Proterozoic granites and granite gneisses with an area average heat production of 16.1 μW/m3; individual lithologies have heat production >60 μW/m 3. These Proterozoic rocks are intruded by the British Empire Granite, a younger intrusive whose or..