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| | | Kelly Magmatic Event (PCKME) | AH Hickman | | | | | Event type | magmatic: intrusive and extrusive | Parent event | | Child events | | Tectonic units affected | | Tectonic setting | igneous: large igneous province | Metamorphic facies | | Metamorphic/tectonic features | –– |
| | | Summary | The Kelly Magmatic Event, resulting from a mantle plume, contributed to the evolution of a Paleoarchean volcanic plateau in the Pilbara Craton by the eruption of the Euro Basalt, forming the Kelly Large Igneous Province (LIP). Magmatic activity resulting from the plume commenced with the widespread eruption of komatiite, komatiitic basalt, and tholeiite. This ultramafic to mafic succession is preserved in the 3350–3335 Ma Euro Basalt of the Kelly Group. Subsequent igneous activity related to the plume included the eruption of felsic volcanic rocks of the 3325–3315 Ma Wyman Formation and intrusion of granitic rocks of the 3324–3290 Ma Emu Pool Supersuite, but these have a far more restricted distribution than the Euro Basalt and are not included in the Kelly LIP. The Euro Basalt is mapped in 16 of the 20 greenstone belts in the exposed part of the terrane, and is interpreted to be concealed by younger formations in the remaining four. The exposed area of the East Pilbara Terrane is only 40 000 km², but allowing for Neoarchean and Proterozoic cover. The total area of the terrane is about 100 000 km². At 3350 Ma, the terrane was much larger as it included at least two sections of crust that were later separated as the Karratha and Kurrana Terranes during the East Pilbara Terrane Rifting Event.
The preserved stratigraphic thickness of the Euro Basalt varies from 2 to 9.4 km, although in many greenstone belts the top of the formation was eroded prior to the deposition of younger stratigraphic groups. Assuming an average thickness of 4 km, the total erupted volume of the Euro Basalt is likely to have far exceeded 500 000 km³, readily meeting the accepted 100 000 km³ volume requirement for a large igneous province. Moreover, very strong stratigraphic and geochronological similarities between the Pilbara Craton and the eastern Kaapvaal Craton (southern Africa) suggest that the Euro Basalt is equivalent to the >3334 Ma volcanic part of the Kromberg Formation.
| | | Distribution | Directly related to a mantle plume, the Kelly Magmatic Event is likely to have impacted an area greater than 1 000 000 km². Because the event produced only one formation within the Pilbara Craton, namely the 3350–3335 Ma Euro Basalt, the distribution of that formation reveals the extent of the event across the present-day Pilbara Craton. However, due to the fact that the craton experienced two events of continental breakup after 3335 Ma, only fragments of the original Euro Basalt succession are now preserved.
Within the fragment of Paleoarchean crust that is exposed in the East Pilbara Terrane, parts of the original Euro Basalt succession are preserved in 16 synclinal greenstone belts. In most of these, the formation is relatively free from tectonic attenuation due to its relatively high stratigraphic level in the Paleoarchean greenstone succession having limited shearing during vertical deformation. The easternmost exposure of the Euro Basalt is located in the Mount Elsie greenstone belt (EASTERN CREEK) where the formation is at least 8 km thick and its base having been removed by granitic intrusion (Farrell, 2006). In the central part of the terrane, in the Panorama greenstone belt (NORTH SHAW), the Euro Basalt is up to 9.4 km thick (Van Kranendonk, 2000a). In the far west of the East Pilbara Terrane, in the Pilbara Well greenstone belt (SATIRIST), the Euro Basalt is incompletely preserved due to shearing and faulting, and is less than 1.5 km thick. Although there is evidence of stratigraphic thinning in the western half of the East Pilbara Terrane, the exceptionally thick successions of the formation in the east reveal that the Kelly Magmatic Event affected an area much larger than that suggested by present exposures of the Euro Basalt.
| | | Description | The Kelly Magmatic Event is attributed to one of a succession of mantle plume events that affected the Pilbara Craton during the evolution of the East Pilbara Terrane (Arndt et al., 2001; Van Kranendonk et al., 2002, 2006, 2007a,b; Hickman, 2004, 2011, 2012, 2021; Hickman and Van Kranendonk, 2004, 2008, 2012; Smithies et al., 2005). The event involved minor initial uplift of the terrane during the final stages in the deposition of the Strelley Pool Formation (Hickman, 2008), followed by widespread eruption of komatiite, komatiitic basalt and tholeiite (Euro Basalt), and the intrusion of peridotite, pyroxenite, gabbro and dolerite. Some of the ultramafic intrusions were emplaced in felsic crust unconformably underlying the Euro Basalt, and include large dykes on the western and eastern sides of the Corunna Downs Dome. In the same dome, the Euro Basalt is underlain by swarms of dolerite dykes (Kloppenburg, 2003; Hickman and Van Kranendonk, 2008), and similar feeder dykes to the Euro Basalt intrude the Panorama Formation on the eastern side of the Shaw Dome (Bagas et al., 2004).
Numerous pillow structures throughout all sections of the Euro Basalt testify to subaqueous deposition, and the locally considerable stratigraphic thicknesses of the formation have been interpreted by some workers as evidence of deepwater marine deposition (Isozaki et al., 1997; Kitajima et al., 2001; Furnes et al., 2007, 2014, 2015). However, in most areas of the East Pilbara Terrane the Euro Basalt directly overlies shallow-water sedimentary rocks of the Strelley Pool Formation (Lowe, 1980, 1983; Allwood et al., 2004a,b, 2006, 2007a,b; Hickman, 2008; Wacey et al., 2010). These lines of evidence indicate major subsidence of the crust during the Kelly Magmatic Event, but the tectonic setting of the Euro Basalt, within an evolving dome-and-keel crustal architecture, does not support regional-scale deep submergence of an oceanic plateau.
An important consideration is that the Euro Basalt was deposited on thick continental crust (Green et al., 2000; Van Kranendonk, 2000b; Smithies et al., 2009; Thébaud and Rey, 2013; François et al. 2014; Johnson et al., 2017; Wiemer et al., 2018). Most estimates put the thickness of this crust at 30 to 45 km, and it included large volumes of Paleoarchean granitic rocks in addition to pre-3530 Ma sialic crust (Hickman, 2021). The buoyancy of such thick crust would have prevented 3350 Ma plateau-wide submergence in an oceanic setting. Instead, crustal heating by radioactive decay over the previous 75 Ma, combined with heating by the mantle plume, is likely to have 'softened' the crust as suggested by Sandiford et al. (2004). This would have supported the re-activation of previously formed domes and basins (Hickman and Van Kranendonk, 2004). This, in turn, resulted in further rise of granitic areas and adjacent deepening of intervening greenstone basins. In this interpretation, the thickest successions of the Euro Basalt were deposited in subsiding basins between the rising granitic cores of the domes, and large parts of the volcanic plateau remained above sea level and subject to erosion. Evidence of erosion of older crust during deposition of the Euro Basalt is provided by detrital zircon ages up to c. 3659 Ma in thin units of sandstone and finer grained clastic sedimentary rocks within the formation (GSWA 168909, Nelson, 2001; GSWA 168999, Nelson, 2004; 94001, Buick et al., 1995). It is notable that the thickest successions of the Euro Basalt are located in the widest areas of greenstone outcrop, namely the Panorama, McPhee and Mount Elsie greenstone belts. These areas of crust contain little or no evidence of pre-3350 Ma granitic intrusion, so would have been most likely to sink during the Kelly Magmatic Event.
Volcanism related to mantle plumes can extend across areas up to 2000 km in diameter, suggesting that the Kelly Magmatic Event affected a much larger area than that now preserved in the East Pilbara Terrane. Prior to the East Pilbara Terrane Rifting Event, the terrane included Paleoarchean continental crust now forming parts of the Karratha and Kurrana Terranes, which are similar in size to the present East Pilbara Terrane (Hickman, 2004). Therefore, the pre-3220 Ma area of the terrane was at least 100 000 km².
Very strong stratigraphic and geochronological similarities between the Pilbara Craton and the eastern Kaapvaal Craton of southern Africa suggest that the Euro Basalt is equivalent to the >3334 Ma volcanic section of the Kromberg Formation. In this scenario, the two formations are likely to have been related to the same mantle plume. At 3350 Ma, the Pilbara and Kaapvaal Cratons were probably adjacent parts of a single body of continental crust.
| | | | | | Geochronology | | | Kelly Magmatic Event | Maximum age | Minimum age | Age (Ma) | 3350 | 3335 | Age | Paleoarchean | Paleoarchean | Age data type | Inferred | | References | | |
| The timing of the Kelly Magmatic Event coincides with the age range of the Euro Basalt. The maximum depositional age of the Euro Basalt is indicated by a date of 3350 ± 3 Ma (GSWA 178042, Nelson, 2005) on a unit of silicified volcaniclastic rocks near the base of the formation in the East Strelley greenstone belt. The Kelly Magmatic Event followed deposition of the Strelley Pool Formation that took place during a c. 75 Ma break in volcanism between eruption of the Warrawoona and Kelly Groups (Van Kranendonk et al., 2006, 2007b; Hickman, 2008, 2012, 2021). A volcanic break of similar duration is indicated by geochronology in the Kaapvaal Craton where the Buck Reef Chert separates the >3416 Ma upper Hooggenoeg Formation (lithologically similar to the Panorama Formation) from >3334 Ma basaltic rocks of the Kromberg Formation (Lowe and Byerly, 2007).
The maximum depositional age of the upper section of the Euro Basalt is interpreted from a date of 3335 ± 7 Ma (GSWA 168999, Nelson, 2004) on detrital zircons in a thin quartzite unit within felsic volcaniclastic rocks in the southwest Kelly greenstone belt. This date is within 10 Ma of the minimum depositional age of the Euro Basalt, because the overlying Wyman Formation has been dated at c. 3325 Ma in separate areas of the Kelly greenstone belt (sample 94754, Thorpe et al., 1992; sample UWA98074, McNaughton et al., 1993). | | | Tectonic Setting | The tectonic setting of the Euro Basalt, and therefore that of the Kelly Magmatic Event, was the same as that of other ultramafic to mafic volcanic formations within groups and subgroups of the 3530–3235 Ma Pilbara Supergroup. All these formations were erupted in the initial stages of successive mantle plume events (Arndt et al., 2001; Van Kranendonk et al., 2002, 2006, 2007a, b; Hickman, 2004, 2011, 2012; Hickman and Van Kranendonk, 2004, 2008, 2012; Smithies et al., 2005) that over 300 Ma developed a 15 to 20 km thick volcanic succession on an extensive volcanic plateau (Van Kranendonk et al., 2002; Hickman, 2004).
According to early geological interpretations of the Pilbara Craton, the Pilbara Supergroup was deposited on older sialic crust (Hickman and Lipple, 1975; Hickman, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1990; Collins et al., 1998; Van Kranendonk et al., 2002). In these interpretations, the tectonic setting of the Pilbara Supergroup was a continental volcanic plateau. However, some subsequent interpretations have likened the Paleoarchean volcanic plateau to present-day oceanic plateaus, such as the Kerguelen Plateau (Arndt et al., 2001; Van Kranendonk and Pirajno, 2004; Van Kranendonk et al., 2007a,b, 2015, 2019). The oceanic plateau model requires critical examination, because it would suggest a tectonic setting similar to Phanerozoic plate tectonic settings. Several lines of evidence indicate that the model is inappropriate for the evolution of the East Pilbara Terrane (Hickman, 2021).
The East Pilbara Terrane was formed by Paleoarchean vertical tectonic processes with no Phanerozoic analogues (Hickman, 1981, 2004, 2012, 2021). Important features of the terrane include: 1) the existence of thick (20–30 km) pre-3530 Ma sialic crust on which the Pilbara Supergroup was deposited; 2) the lithologically complex stratigraphy of the Pilbara Supergroup, including repeated ultramafic–mafic–felsic volcanic cycles and five episodes of voluminous granitic intrusion; 3) the dome-and-keel crustal architecture of the terrane, a feature absent from all modern oceanic plateaus; 4) evolution of the terrane over 300 Ma, including eight mantle plume events (Hickman, 2011), in contrast to oceanic plateaus that were typically constructed during a single mantle plume event over less than 20 Ma (Condie, 2001); 5) stratigraphic and geochronological evidence that the 300 Ma evolution the terrane includes periods of widespread subaerial erosion and shallow-water sedimentation; 6) major erosional unconformities (c. 3450, c. 3426 and c. 3290 Ma), following events of deformation, metamorphism, and granitic intrusion; and 7) mafic dyke swarms in felsic crust beneath two of the thickest basaltic formations of the terrane (Apex Basalt and Euro Basalt), a feature characteristic of continental basalts but absent from oceanic plateaus.
Another important consideration is that present-day oceanic plateaus have evolved by plate tectonic processes. In those examples that are thought to be underlain by continental crust, this crust is thin and explained as having originated from continental breakup and plate separation. However, a range of evidence from the Pilbara Craton indicates that the onset of plate tectonic processes took place after c. 3220 Ma (Van Kranendonk et al., 2006, 2007a,b; 2010). Additionally, Smithies et al. (2018) used Th/Yb–Nb/Yb plots (Pearce, 2008) to question if Phanerozoic-style plate tectonic processes played any significant role in the Archean until at least c. 2650 Ma.
The thick subaqueous basaltic successions of the Pilbara Supergroup were deposited in basins that were subsiding between simultaneously rising domes, and do not indicate deep submergence of the entire terrane. Evidence of uplift and erosion simultaneous with adjacent basin subsidence is provided by thin sandstone units within the various basalt formations that contain Eoarchean and early Paleoarchean detrital zircons. This indicates erosion of crust older than 3500 Ma, so that even during subaqueous deposition of thick basaltic successions the plateau included areas of land containing exposed early crust. This situation is inconsistent with an oceanic plateau. Throughout the histories of oceanic plateaus, most were entirely submerged to oceanic depths and any older crust was deeply buried.
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| | | | Recommended reference for this publication | Hickman, AH 2021, Kelly Magmatic Event (PCKME): Geological Survey of Western Australia, WA Geology Online, Explanatory Notes extract, viewed 05 August 2025. <www.dmp.wa.gov.au/ens> |
| | | This page was last modified on 23 June 2021. | | | | | Grid references in this publication refer to the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94). Locations mentioned in the text are referenced using Map Grid Australia (MGA) coordinates, Zones 49 to 52. All locations are quoted to at least the nearest 100 m. Capitalized names in text refer to standard 1:100 000 map sheets, unless otherwise indicated. WAROX is GSWA’s field observation and sample database. WAROX site IDs have the format ‘ABCXXXnnnnnnSS’, where ABC = geologist username, XXX = project or map code, nnnnnn = 6 digit site number, and SS = optional alphabetic suffix (maximum 2 characters). All isotopic dates are based on U–Pb analysis of zircon and quoted with 95% uncertainties, unless stated otherwise. U–Pb measurements of GSWA samples were conducted using a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) in the John de Laeter Centre at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. Digital data related to WA Geology Online, including geochronology and digital geology, are available online at the Department’s Data and Software Centre and may be viewed in map context at GeoVIEW.WA. | | | Further details of geological publications and maps produced by the Geological Survey of Western Australia are available from: Information Centre Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety 100 Plain Street EAST PERTH, WA 6004 Telephone: +61 8 9222 3459 Facsimile: +61 8 9222 3444 |
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