PLATE TECTONICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE TIMOR SEAR NORTHWEST AUSTRALIA

1973 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Warris
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Rift Valley ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Complete Separation ◽  
The North ◽  
Australian Continent ◽  
Early Palaeozoic ◽  
Oceanic Plates ◽  
Shelf Sedimentation

The Browse and Bonaparte Gulf Basins in northwestern Australia contain sedimentary sections which range in age from early Palaeozoic to Recent. These basins developed as a result of the rifting and break up of Gondwanaland into two continents. The sedimentary and tectonic histories of these basins clearly reflect the relative movements of these continents.In pre-Permian times, the earliest postulated rifting may have been early Palaeozoic associated with the north-south separation of Gondwanaland from Eurasia which produced the Tethyan Sea. This was followed by Middle Palaeozoic rifting which affected the Bonaparte Gulf Basin, Fitzroy Graben and perhaps also the Browse Basin.A Late Carboniferous-Early Permian rift valley developed between the Kimberley Block and a western landmass. Alternate marine and fluvio-deltaic deposits characterised sedimentation in this rift valley until Early Jurassic time. Marine transgressions inundated from the north where the rift valley opened into the Tethyan Sea.During the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, the western landmass was detached from the Australian continent along a major right lateral wrench fault. At this time the Indian Ocean Basin appeared as a distinct morphological unit and inundated the Browse Basin. Associated with these movements were the emergence of the Ashmore-Sahul Block and Northeast Londonderry Ridge and the development of the Scott Reef-Buccaneer trend. Marine volcanics at Scott Reef and Ashmore Reef may be related to the formation of new ocean crust.At the end of the Early Cretaceous, tectonic events associated with the complete separation of the western landmass from Australia, resulted in a regional northwesterly tilt of the basin and a major marine transgression.During the Tertiary, Australia moved north, away from Antarctica, and eventually collided with the Southeast Asian and West Pacific oceanic plates. Timor uplifted as a Tertiary melange of Australian sediments behind a north-dipping sub-duction zone along the Timor Trough. The Timor Sea remained relatively stable and was the site of carbonate shelf sedimentation.

GLOBALLY SYNCHRONOUS COMPRESSIONAL PULSES IN EXTENSIONAL BASINS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION

1995 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
J. K. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
Hydrocarbon Exploration ◽  
Late Triassic ◽  
Northern Margin ◽  
Seal Integrity ◽  
The North ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Australian Continent

It is possible to interpret many continental stresses on the Global Stress Map (Zoback, 1992) in terms of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics on a constant radius earth predicts a state of zero stress in Australia, except for northerly to northeasterly compression along the northern margin where Australia interacts with the Pacific Plate. However, the continent is everywhere in a state of significant horizontal compression, generally directed towards its centre.In southeastern Australia the current maximum horizontal compressional stress is directed northwestwards. While Gippsland Basin and Bass Basin developed under extensional stress from the Late Jurassic to Recent, there have been pulses of similarly directed compression in the Pliocene to Recent, Mid Miocene, Early Miocene, Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, Early Eocene, Paleocene, Campanian, Late Albian to Early Cenomanian, Aptian and Valanginian(?).Most of these pulses can also be demonstrated in such widely separated areas as the Carnarvon Basin in northwestern Australia, the Capricorn and Surat/Bowen Basins in eastern Australia, southern England, the Viking Graben in the North Sea and Pacific Guatemala. Pulses in the Portlandian, Callovian, Early Jurassic, Late Triassic and Mid Triassic appear to be similarly synchronous while two events in the Early Permian have been recognised also.Near-surface compressional pulses contemporaneous with lower crustal extension can be explained by continental flattening on an expanding earth. Such an interpretation is consistent with the centrewards horizontal compressional stresses observed in the Australian continent since at least the Late Triassic.Since an expansion pulse results in increased ocean basin capacity, compressional pulses have a strong tendency to coincide with the major sea level falls on the Haq et al (1987) global eustatic cycle chart.The orientations of horizontal compressional stresses appear to have varied little since the Late Triassic. If a basin axis is approximately perpendicular to those stresses the basin may record all compression pulses. However, repeated compression sub-parallel to a basin axis may induce movement on wrench faults which can be a threat to seal integrity.

Controls on the preservation of Jurassic volcanism in the Northern Carnarvon Basin

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 600
Author(s):  
Michael Curtis ◽  
Simon Holford ◽  
Mark Bunch ◽  
Nick Schofield
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Volcanic Centre ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Igneous Provinces ◽  
Australian Continent ◽  
Northern Carnarvon Basin ◽  
Uplift And Erosion ◽  
Carnarvon Basin

The Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB) forms part of the North West Australian margin. This ‘volcanic’ rifted margin formed as Greater India rifted from the Australian continent through the Jurassic, culminating in breakup in the Early Cretaceous. Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous syn-rift intrusive magmatism spans 45000km2 of the western Exmouth Plateau and the Exmouth Sub-basin; however, there is little evidence of associated contemporaneous volcanic activity, with isolated late Jurassic volcanic centres present in the central Exmouth Sub-basin. The scarcity of observed volcanic centres is not typical of the extrusive components expected in such igneous provinces, where intrusive:extrusive ratios are typically 2–3:1. To address this, we have investigated the processes that led to the preservation of a volcanic centre near the Pyrenees field and the Toro Volcanic Centre (TVC). The volcanic centre near the Pyrenees field appears to have been preserved from erosion associated with the basin-wide KV unconformity by fault-related downthrow. However, the TVC, which was also affected by faulting, is located closer to the focus of regional early Cretaceous uplift along the Ningaloo Arch to the south and was partly eroded. With erosion of up to 2.6km estimated across the Ningaloo Arch, which, in places, removed all Jurassic strata, we propose that the ‘Exmouth Volcanic Province’ was originally much larger, extending south from the TVC into the southern Exmouth Sub-basin prior to regional uplift and erosion, accounting for the ‘missing’ volume of extrusive igneous material in the NCB.

Monthly satellite-derived phytoplankton pigment distribution for the North Atlantic Ocean basin

Eos ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 67 (44) ◽  
pp. 835 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Esaias ◽  
G. C. Feldman ◽  
C. R. McClain ◽  
J. A. Elrod
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Phytoplankton Pigment ◽  
The North ◽  
Pigment Distribution ◽  
The North Atlantic

Late Quaternary change in the mountains of New Guinea

Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (265) ◽  
pp. 818-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Hope ◽  
Jack Golson
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Mountainous Areas ◽  
The South ◽  
Environmental Sequence ◽  
The North ◽  
Australian Continent

At the south and north limits of our region are mountainous areas very different from the open arid spaces of the Australian continent between. In the north, the high country of New Guinea offers a complex and well-studied environmental sequence as the arena for early and puzzling human adaptations, precursor of the extraordinary societies of the island today.

Early Cretaceous extensional allochthons in the Taihang Shan associated with destruction of the North China Craton

2021 ◽  
pp. 104933
Author(s):  
Wuke Chen ◽  
Yi Liufu ◽  
Lei Wu ◽  
Chenyu Zhang ◽  
Hongwei Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
North China Craton ◽  
North China ◽  
The North

New multituberculate mammal from the Early Cretaceous of eastern North America

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Cifelli ◽  
Cynthia L. Gordon ◽  
Thomas R. Lipka
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
North American ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Relative Length ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
The North

Multituberculates, though among the most commonly encountered mammalian fossils of the Mesozoic, are poorly known from the North American Early Cretaceous, with only one taxon named to date. Herein we describe Argillomys marylandensis, gen. et sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous of Maryland, based on an isolated M2. Argillomys represents the second mammal known from the Arundel Clay facies of the Patuxent Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Aptian). Though distinctive in its combination of characters (e.g., enamel ornamentation consisting of ribs and grooves only, cusp formula 2:4, presence of distinct cusp on anterobuccal ridge, enlargement of second cusp on buccal row, central position of ultimate cusp in lingual row, great relative length), the broader affinities of Argillomys cannot be established because of non-representation of the antemolar dentition. Based on lack of apomorphies commonly seen among Cimolodonta (e.g., three or more cusps present in buccal row, fusion of cusps in lingual row, cusps strongly pyramidal and separated by narrow grooves), we provisionally regard Argillomys as a multituberculate of “plagiaulacidan” grade. Intriguingly, it is comparable in certain respects to some unnamed Paulchoffatiidae, a family otherwise known from the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Currently Earliest Angiosperm Fruit from the Jurassic of North America

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Early Evolution ◽  
The North ◽  
Plant Group ◽  
Ecological Radiation ◽  
Origin Of Angiosperms ◽  
Crucial Test

Angiosperms are the single most important plant group in the current ecosystem. However, little is known about the origin and early evolution of angiosperms. Jurassic and earlier traces of angiosperms have been claimed multiple times from Europe and Asia, but reluctance to accept these records remains. To test the truthfulness of these claims, palaeobotanical records from continents other than Europe and Asia constitute a crucial test. Here I document a new angiosperm fruit, Dilcherifructus mexicana gen. et sp. nov, from the Middle Jurassic of Mexico. Its Jurassic age suggests that origin of angiosperms is much earlier than widely accepted, while its occurrence in the North America indicates that angiosperms were already widespread in the Jurassic, although they were still far away from their ecological radiation, which started in the Early Cretaceous.

Danian Mollusks from the Prince Creek Formation, Northern Alaska, and Implications for Arctic Ocean Paleogeography

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (S35) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louie Marincovich
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
World Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Arctic Ocean ◽  
Molluscan Fauna ◽  
Endemic Genera ◽  
Northern Alaska

The marine molluscan fauna of the Prince Creek Formation near Ocean Point, northern Alaska, is of Danian age. It is the only diverse and abundant Danian molluscan fauna known from the Arctic Ocean realm, and is the first evidence for an indigenous Paleocene shallow-water biota within a discrete Arctic Ocean Basin faunal province.A high percentage of endemic species, and two endemic genera, emphasize the degree to which the Arctic Ocean was geographically isolated from the world ocean during the earliest Tertiary. Many of the well-preserved Ocean Point mollusks, however, also occur in Danian faunas of the North American Western Interior, the Canadian Arctic Islands, Svalbard, and northwestern Europe, and are the basis for relating this Arctic Ocean fauna to that of the Danian world ocean.The Arctic Ocean was a Danian refugium for some genera that became extinct elsewhere during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. At the same time, this nearly landlocked ocean fostered the evolution of new taxa that later in the Paleogene migrated into the world ocean by way of the northeastern Atlantic. The first Cenozoic occurrences are reported for the bivalves Integricardium (Integricardium), Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma), Placunopsis, Tancredia (Tancredia), and Tellinimera, and the oldest Cenozoic records given for the bivalves Gari (Garum), Neilo, and Yoldia (Cnesterium). Among the 25 species in the molluscan fauna are four new gastropod species, Amauropsis fetteri, Ellipsoscapha sohli, Mathilda (Fimbriatella) amundseni, and Polinices (Euspira) repenningi, two new bivalve genera, Arcticlam and Mytilon, and 15 new bivalve species, Arcticlam nanseni, Corbula (Caryocorbula) betsyae, Crenella kannoi, Cyrtodaria katieae, Gari (Garum) brouwersae, Integricardium (Integricardium) keenae, Mytilon theresae, Neilo gryci, Nucula (Nucula) micheleae, Nuculana (Jupiteria) moriyai, Oxytoma (Hypoxytoma) hargrovei, Placunopsis rothi, Tancredia (Tancredia) slavichi, Tellinimera kauffmani, and Yoldia (Cnesterium) gladenkovi.

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