Lost Terranes of Zealandia: possible development of late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic sedimentary basins at the southwest Pacific margin of Gondwanaland, and their destination as terranes in southern South America Terrenos perdidos de Zealandia: posible desarrollo de cuencas sedimentarias del Paleozoico tardío y Mesozoico temprano en el margen suroccidental del Pacífico de Gondwana y su destino como terrenos en el sur de América del Sur

Latest Precambrian to Ordovician metasedimentary successions and Cambrian-Ordovician and Devonian-Carboniferous granitoids form the major part of the basement of southern Zealandia and adjacent sectors of Antarctica and southeast Australia. Uplift/cooling ages of these rocks, and local Devonian shal...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christopher J Adams
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Published: Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería (SERNAGEOMIN) 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/59146c864e2744b1823be3cf6d6c40f7
Description
Summary:Latest Precambrian to Ordovician metasedimentary successions and Cambrian-Ordovician and Devonian-Carboniferous granitoids form the major part of the basement of southern Zealandia and adjacent sectors of Antarctica and southeast Australia. Uplift/cooling ages of these rocks, and local Devonian shallow-water cover sequences suggest that final consolidation of the basement occurred through Late Paleozoic time. A necessary consequence of this process would have been contemporaneous erosion and the substantial development of marine sedimentary basins at the Pacific margin of Zealandia. These are found nowhere at the present day, suggesting that the basins have been lost by tectonic erosion, perhaps in a margin-parallel dextral translation similar to late Paleozoic-Mesozoic suspect terranes of New Zealand. Aprobable detrital zircon age pattern is assembled for these lost Zealandia sediments, and then compared with those of pre-Jurassic (probable Triassic to Devonian) metasedimentary rocks in the Chilean archipelago. Significant Mesoproterozoic, latest Neoproterozoic-Cambrian and Devonian-Carboniferous detrital zircon age components are common to both, thus supporting a possible Chilean terrane destination for these 'lost terranes of Zealandia'. Las sucesiones metasedimentarias del Precámbrico tardío al Ordovícico y granitoides del Cámbrico-Ordovícico y Devónico-Carbonífero constituyen la mayor parte del basamento del sur de Zealandia y sectores adyacentes de la Antartica y el sudeste de Australia. Las edades de enfriamiento/alzamiento de estas rocas y la cobertura local de secuencias de aguas someras del Devónico, sugieren que la consolidación definitiva del basamento se produjo durante el Paleozoico tardío. Una consecuencia necesaria de este proceso habría sido la erosion contemporánea y el desarrollo sustancial de cuencas sedimentarias marinas en el margen del Pacífico de Zealandia. Estas no se encuentran en ninguna parte en la actualidad, lo que sugiere que las cuencas se han perdido por erosion tectónica, tal ...