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| | | | Geological Survey of Western Australia |
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| | | | DMcB Martin | | | | | Type | Basin | Lithology | sedimentary and volcanic rocks | Parent unit | | Child units | No child units | Constituent lithostratigraphic units | | Affected by events | | Tectonic setting | |
| | | Summary | Definition of the Turee Creek Basin is controversial, owing mainly to disagreements regarding the tectonic setting of the uppermost Mount Bruce Supergroup and its relationship to overlying units. The Turee Creek Basin is mainly interpreted as a foreland basin developed on the southern margin of the Pilbara Craton, although recent workers have attempted to interpret it as a continental rift or intracratonic basin, whilst others have placed the Turee Creek Group within the Hamersley Basin. Stratigraphic relationships between the c. 2208 Ma Balgara Dolerite and its host sedimentary rocks around the southern Hamersley province margin, most notably in the Hardey and Turee Creek Synclines, now clearly establishes that the c. 2420–2203 Ma Turee Creek Basin consists of the Turee Creek and Shingle Creek Groups, and the revised Boolgeeda Iron Formation at the top of the Hamersley Group. Moreover, the Turee Creek Basin is now recognized to paraconformably overlie the Hamersley Basin, and is unconformably overlain by the Wooly Formation and Mount McGrath Formation at the base of the Ashburton Basin. | | | Distribution | The Turee Creek Basin is mainly preserved along the southern margin of the Pilbara Craton in the cores of regional synclines formed during the Ophthalmia Orogeny. These synclines are present on the 1:250 000 map sheets WYLOO, MOUNT BRUCE, TUREE CREEK, NEWMAN and ROBERTSON. An additional area of inferred preservation under Cenozoic cover is present on the 1:250 000 map sheet YARRALOOLA, in the vicinity of Yeera Bluff (Zone 50, MGA 411040E 7599260N). | | | Description | The Turee Creek Basin (Blake and Barley, 1992; Krapež, 1996) is interpreted to have formed in response to flexural loading of the southern margin of the Pilbara Craton during interpreted accretion of the Glenburgh Terrane, and consists of the Boolgeeda Iron Formation, Turee Creek Group and Shingle Creek Group. The Boolgeeda Iron Formation records the starved foredeep stage of flexural subsidence, which is followed by the underfilled stage that is represented by the Kungarra Formation below the Meteorite Bore Member (Martin, 2020). The filled foredeep stage is represented by the interval between the Meteorite Bore Member and an intraformational unconformity in the Kazput Formation. The remainder of the Turee Creek Basin is characterized by deposition in an overfilled to wedge top depositional zone. The depositional axis of the Turee Creek Basin is interpreted to trend roughly in an easterly to westerly direction, with an uplifted source area dominated by Hamersley and Fortescue Group strata and Pilbara Craton-aged rocks to the south. Paleocurrent data, thickness trends and facies relationships indicate that the basin deepened to the south (Horwitz, 1982; Martin et al., 2000).
Unconformities related to active deformation during sedimentation are found throughout the Turee Creek Basin sequence, but are most evident in the wedge top to overfilled foredeep stages. Disconformities and minor erosion surfaces low in the succession (Martin, 2020), and a local unconformity low in the Kungarra Formation at the eastern end of the Wyloo Anticline (DMMHAM000853), are interpreted to reflect the uplift and migration of a flexural bulge (Martin and Morris, 2010). Active magmatism late in the basin history, represented by the Cheela Springs Basalt and coeval Balgara Dolerite, and formation of the Beasley River Quartzite unconformity, are interpreted to be the product of uplift and decompression melting related to breakoff of a subducted slab beneath the southern margin of the Pilbara Craton (Martin and Morris, 2010). | | | | | | Geochronology | | | Turee Creek Basin | Maximum age | Minimum age | Age (Ma) | 2444 | 2203 | Age | Paleoproterozoic | Paleoproterozoic |
| The maximum age of the Turee Creek Basin is constrained by the 2444 ± 3 Ma minimum age of the underlying Woongarra Rhyolite (Wingate et al., 2018) at the top of the Hamersley Group. However, the presence of a disconformity at the base of the Boolgeeda Iron Formation, and numerous small-scale erosion surfaces within it, and a disconformity at the base of the Turee Creek Group (Martin, 2020), suggests that there is a significant hiatus or condensed interval at this stratigraphic level. Integration of the 2312.7 ± 5.6 Ma diagenetic age of the Meteorite Bore Member (Philippot et al., 2018) with a reasonable depositional rate for the intervening strata above the basal unconformity suggests a maximum age of c. 2325 Ma (Martin, 2020), which supports this interpretation. The minimum age of the Turee Creek Basin is constrained by the 2203 ± 4 Ma maximum depositional age (Wingate et al., 2019) of a tuff bed near the top of the Cheela Springs Basalt that is interpreted to be close to the depositional age (Martin, 2020). | | | | | | | Contact relationships | | | | Tectonic unit name | Unit code | Contact type | Contact relationship | | HA | paraconformable | underlies TK | | AS | unconformable | overlies TK | | WY | unconformable | overlies TK |
| The Turee Creek Basin disconformably overlies the Hamersley Basin, and is unconformably overlain by the Wooly Formation whose tectonic affinity is controversial (Krapež et al., 2015, 2017; Martin, 2020) and by the Ashburton Basin. | | | Tectonic setting | The Turee Creek Basin has long been considered to be a retro-arc foreland basin, although its precise stratigraphic extent is disputed (Blake and Barley, 1992; Krapež, 1996; Powell et al., 1999; Martin et al., 2000; Martin and Morris, 2010; Van Kranendonk et al., 2015; Krapež et al., 2017; Martin, 2020), and recent studies have also proposed an extensional or intracratonic tectonic setting (Van Kranendonk et al., 2015). The counterargument to the latter interpretation has been succinctly presented by Krapež (2017). Disagreements surrounding the stratigraphic definition and tectonic setting of the Turee Creek Basin have centred on its relationship to the underlying Hamersley Basin and the stratigraphic definition and tectonic affinity of the Shingle Creek Group. These issues have been discussed at length by Martin and Morris (2010) and Martin (2020), who also presented evidence to show that the Turee Creek Basin is indeed a retro-arc foreland basin, consisting of the Boolgeeda Iron Formation, Turee Creek Group and Shingle Creek Group. Foreland subsidence is interpreted to have been in response to accretion of the Glenburgh Terrane to the southern margin of the Pilbara Craton during the Ophthalmia Orogeny (Sheppard, 2004; Johnson et al., 2010; Martin and Morris, 2010; Martin, 2020) as a consequence of northward subduction and the establishment of an earlier bimodal magmatic arc along the craton margin (Blake and Barley, 1992; Barley et al., 1997; Martin and Morris, 2010). | BookMark | | | | | Constituent lithostratigraphic units | | | Unit name | Unit code | Rank | GSWA status | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Member | Formal | | | Member | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Member | Formal | | | Formation | Formal | | | Member | Formal | | | Group | Formal | Three Corner Conglomerate Member | | Member | Formal | | | Group | Formal | | | Member | Formal |
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| | | | | | References | Barley, ME, Pickard, AL and Sylvester, PJ 1997, Emplacement of a large igneous province as a possible cause of banded iron-formation 2.45 billion years ago: Nature, v. 385, p. 55–58. | Blake, TS and Barley, ME 1992, Tectonic evolution of the Late Archaean to Early Proterozoic Mount Bruce megasequence set, Western Australia: Tectonics, v. 11, p. 1415–1425. | Horwitz, RC 1982, Geological history of the early Proterozoic Paraburdoo Hinge Zone, Western Australia: Precambrian Research, v. 19, no. 2, p. 191–200. | Johnson, SP, Sheppard, S, Rasmussen, B, Wingate, MTD, Kirkland, CL, Muhling, JR, Fletcher, IR and Belousova, E 2010, The Glenburgh Orogeny as a record of Paleoproterozoic continent-continent collision: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2010/5, 54p. View Reference | Krapež, B 1996, Sequence stratigraphic concepts applied to the identification of basin-filling rhythms in Precambrian successions: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 43, no. 4, p. 355–380. | Krapež, B 2017, A comment on “A tale of two basins? Stratigraphy and detrital zircon provenance of the Palaeoproterozoic Turee Creek and Horseshoe basins of Western Australia”—Reply: Precambrian Research, v. 311, p. 278–280, doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2017.06.028. | Krapež, B, Müller, SG and Bekker, A 2015, Stratigraphy of the Late Palaeoproterozoic (~2.03 Ga) Wooly Dolomite, Ashburton Province, Western Australia: A carbonate platform developed in a failed rift basin: Precambrian Research, v. 271, p. 1–19, doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2015.09.022. | Krapež, B, Müller, SG, Fletcher, IR and Rasmussen, B 2017, A tale of two basins? Stratigraphy and detrital zircon provenance of the Paleoproterozoic Turee Creek and Horseshoe Basins of Western Australia: Precambrian Research, v. 294, p. 67–90. | Martin, DMcB 2020, Geology of the Hardey Syncline — The key to understanding the northern margin of the Capricorn Orogen: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Report 203, 62p. View Reference | Martin, DMcB and Morris, PA 2010, Tectonic setting and regional implications of ca. 2.2 Ga mafic magmatism in the southern Hamersley Province, Western Australia: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 57, no. 7, p. 911–931. | Martin, DMcB, Powell, CMcA and George, AD 2000, Stratigraphic architecture and evolution of the early Paleoproterozoic McGrath Trough, Western Australia: Precambrian Research, v. 99, p. 33–64. | Philippot, P, Ávila, JN, Killingsworth, BA, Tessalina, S, Baton, F, Caquineau, T, Muller, E, Pecoits, E, Cartigny, P, Lalonde, SV, Ireland, TR, Thomazo, C, Van Kranendonk, MJ and Busigny, V 2018, Globally asynchronous sulphur isotope signals require re-definition of the Great Oxidation Event: Nature Communications, v. 9, p. 1–10, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04621-x. | Powell, CMcA, Oliver, NHS, Li, ZX, Martin, DMcB and Ronaszeki, J 1999, Synorogenic hydrothermal origin for giant Hamersley iron oxide ore bodies: Geology, v. 27, no. 2, p. 175–178, doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0175:SHOFGH>2.3.CO;2. | Sheppard, S 2004, Unravelling the complexity of the Gascoyne Complex, in GSWA 2004 extended abstracts: promoting the prospectivity of Western Australia: Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2004/5, p. 26–28. View Reference | Van Kranendonk, MJ, Mazumder, R, Yamaguchi, KE, Yamada, K and Ikehara, M 2015, Sedimentology of the Paleoproterozoic Kungarra Formation, Turee Creek Group, Western Australia: A conformable record of the transition from early to modern Earth: Precambrian Research, v. 256, p. 314–343. | Wingate, MTD, Lu, Y, Fielding, IOH, Martin, DMcB and Johnson, SP 2019, 219586.1: volcaniclastic sandstone, Urandy Creek; Geochronology Record 1614: Geological Survey of Western Australia, <www.dmpe.wa.gov.au/geochron>. View Reference | Wingate, MTD, Lu, Y, Kirkland, CL and Johnson, SP 2018, 195892.1: rhyodacite, Woongarra Pool; Geochronology Record 1453: Geological Survey of Western Australia, <www.dmpe.wa.gov.au/geochron>. View Reference |
| | | | Recommended reference for this publication | Martin, DMcB 2022, Turee Creek Basin (TK): Geological Survey of Western Australia, WA Geology Online, Explanatory Notes extract, viewed 15 September 2025. <www.dmp.wa.gov.au/ens> |
| | | This page was last modified on 20 September 2022. | | | | | 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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