School of Earth Sciences - Theses

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End date: 1996 × Start date: 1990 × Type: Honours thesis × Subject: geology ×

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    Mobility of base metals through regolith, Broken Hill, N.S.W.
    Lulofs, Damien ( 1993)
    Regolith profiles over and around zones of Pb-Zn mineralisation were investigated at Maybell and Stirling Vale, located in the Broken Hill region, N.S.W. Metasediments and metavolcanics of the Proterozoic Willyama Supergroup crop out in the study areas, with quartz-gahnite horizons hosting mineralisation. Desert loam soils in the study areas have a transported origin. Locally transported sheetwash deposits overlie a relict aeolian deposit which sits on relatively fresh Proterozoic bedrock. Mineralogy of the regolith profile is consistent with depth and landscape position. Quartz-gahnite horizons form topographic highs in both areas, containing up to 13.5% Zn. Gossanous material is associated with the quartz-gahnite rocks. No base metal containing secondary minerals were present in this weathered material but there were high proportions of iron oxides containing substantial amounts of base metals. Surrounding soils were anomalous in Zn, Cu and their pathfinders Cd and As, which outlines a mobilisation of base metals. Similar anomalies were expressed in stream sediments. Calcrete in the area, contained no anomalous levels of Zn, due to the low solubility of Zn at high pH. The majority of base metals in soils were associated with amorphous iron oxides and silicates (presumably gahnites). These metal bonding sites indicate, dispersion haloes in the regolith are due to a combination of physical and chemical dispersion. In this example of transported regolith profiles in an arid terrain, Zn and Cu are both physically and hydromorphically dispersed from weathering quartz-gahnite horizons.
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    Geology of the lookout area, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
    Annear, Joshua A. ( 1996)
    The Lookout Area, southern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia forms part of the Lincoln Batholith with outcropping Donington Granitoid Suite units of Palaeo-Proterozoic age (l840-1800Ma) and both syn-plutonic and intrusive mafic dykes. The area was surveyed and mapped at 1:500 to produce a detailed geological map including the form surface trend of structural features. The units, incorporating felsic, intermediate and mafic gneisses intruded by the mafic dyke sequences, preserve high strain mylonitic deformational features with well developed fabrics in the felsic units. The Mafic dykes are boudinaged and display asymmetries attributed to antithetic back-rotation due to extensional shear. Kinematic indicators including shear band formation, parasitic folding and strain shadows suggest a kinematic history of initial sinistral deformation post-dated by dextral west-up oblique shear associated with the formation of the principal foliation. This is in turn post-dated by local sinistral shearing. The strain associated with the deformation can be measured by use of porphyroclast shape and distribution. These results indicate that the strain is locally variable, from constrictional to flattening, but generally constrictional with an extensional ratio of approximately 6:1. The metamorphic conditions preserved by the mineral assemblages analysed through the average PT method using THERMOCALC are; 700-850°C and 5.8-6.8 kbar. This mineral assemblage indicates metamorphism in the area has achieved upper-arnphibolite to lower granulite facies metamorphism at some stage in the PT history of the area.