Workshop and excursions
Workshop - Yilgarn-Superior comparison
A one-day post-Symposium workshop will compare similarities and differences in the geology of the Yilgarn and Superior Cratons and, more specifically, the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and Eastern Goldfields Superterrane, to better understand the consequences for metal endowment.
Recent findings from research programs such as the Discover Abitibi Initiative, LITHOPROBE, and NATMAP projects in Canada, and the pmd*CRC and AMIRA Yilgarn projects, will be used to suggest avenues for future exploration and research opportunities. Presentations will touch on all major commodities, with a particular emphasis on gold, VMS, and nickel mineralisation.
Key research and industry geologists from Canada and Australia will present new results and debate the geological and metallogenic implications of work carried out in both cratons over the past decade.
Date: Friday 10 September 2010 following the Symposium (post-Symposium excursions commence on Saturday 11 September)
Venue: Western Australian Cricket Ground (WACA), Nelson Avenue, East Perth
Cost: AUD $275
Workshop is available to Symposium registrants only.
Excursions
Excursions will proceed only if a minimum number of full payments is reached by 30 June 2010. The Organising Committee reserves the right to cancel an excursion if there are insufficient participants.
If an excursion is oversubscribed or is cancelled because of insufficient participants, registrants will be offered the opportunity to transfer to another excursion or receive a full refund.
Excursions are available to Symposium registrants only. Places will be allocated strictly on a first-come first-served basis.
Pre-symposium excursions
1. Evolution of active plate margins: West Pilbara Superterrane, Fortescue and Hamersley Basins
Successions in the West Pilbara provide the best evidence that some form of modern-style plate tectonic processes was operating by at least ca 3.2 Ga.
This excursion will visit localities providing key evidence used in interpreting the geotectonic evolution of west Pilbara Superterrane as a Mesoarchean active plate margin. It will include sections interpreted as forming fragments of an obducted oceanic slab, an oceanic arc, a continental volcanic pull-apart basin, and boninite-like rocks and sanukitoids related to late-tectonic orogenic relaxation and slab-breakoff. The range of processes interpreted from this region collectively represent the world’s oldest complete Wilson Cycle.
The final day will traverse the Fortescue and Hamersley Basins looking at the evidence for their tectonic settings from rifting at 2.8 Ga through a passive margin setting at 2.6-2.4 Ga, through to collision during the Ophthalmian Orogeny at 2.2 Ga.
Leaders: Dr Hugh Smithies and Dr Arthur Hickman (Geological
Survey of Western Australia); Fortescue and Hamersley Basins - Dr Ian Tyler
(Geological Survey of Western Australia)
Duration: 6 days (30 August to 4 September), starting and finishing in Perth
Transport: Perth-Karratha return flight, 4WD vehicles
Accommodation: Hotel/motel, station
Maximum participants: 15
Cost: AUD $1,700
2. Controls on giant mineral systems in Yilgarn Craton
The past decade has seen remarkable advances in understanding the architecture and assembly of the Yilgarn Craton, as well as the absolute timing, genesis and structural modification of NiS, orogenic Au, intrusion-related Au and VMS systems within the context of the tectonic evolution of the craton.
This excursion will focus on the major mineral systems of the Neoarchaean Eastern Goldfields Superterrane, particularly the Au, NiS and VMS systems, and contrast them with Au and NiS systems of the Meso-Neoarchaean Youanmi and Southwest Terranes of the central and southwest Yilgarn. Major deposits or camps to be visited* will include Kambalda (1.5 Mt Ni; >10 Moz Au); Kalgoorlie (100 Moz Au); Laverton (e.g. Sunrise >10 Moz Au; Wallaby >5 Moz Au), Southern Cross (e.g. Marvel Loch >2 Moz Au); Forrestania (e.g. Flying Fox >100 Kt Ni); and Boddington (>20 Moz Au, >800 Kt Cu). This will be the first field trip to cover the metallogeny of all of these terranes – a must for geoscientists exploring in Archean terranes worldwide.
* Given circumstances may change rapidly, underground mine visits cannot be guaranteed.
Leaders: Professor Cam McCuaig, Dr Steve Beresford & Dr John Miller (The
University of Western Australia)
Duration: 6 days (30 August to 4 September), starting in Laverton and finishing in Perth
Transport: Perth-Laverton flight, bus
Accommodation: Hotel/motel, station
Maximum participants: 20
Cost: AUD $2,600
Post-symposium excursions
3. Tracking the development of life on early Earth: Pilbara Craton, Fortescue and Hamersley Basins
This excursion will traverse 1.5 billion years of Earth history in the remote Pilbara region, to trace the early development of life on Earth.
It will start in Port Hedland, and travel south, camping at night under the stars of the southern hemisphere. In the ancient Pilbara Craton, we will visit the oldest recorded stromatolites on Earth in the 3.48 Ga Dresser Formation and 3.40 Ga Strelley Pool Formation in the North Pole Dome, view the 3.46 Ga Marble Bar Chert, and inspect the controversial Apex chert (Schopf) locality, where putative microfossils have been reported. From there, we will continue south through the 2.78-2.45 Ga Mount Bruce Supergroup, including stops at stromatolitic carbonates of the ca 2.72 Ga Tumbiana Formation (Fortescue Group), and dolomite, shale, impact breccias, rhyolite and banded iron-formations of the ca 2.5 Hamersley Group in, and around, Karijini National Park.
On the last days, we will visit the transition from the banded iron-formations of the Hamersley Group into the ca 2.4-2.2 Ga Turee Creek Group, including the basal glacial deposits of the Meteorite Bore Member and overlying stromatolitic carbonates, and discuss the potential of this section as a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Archean-Proterozoic. We will also visit the famous living stromatolites of Shark Bay on the way back to Perth.
Leaders: Dr Martin Van Kranendonk (Geological Survey of Western
Australia), Professor Mark Barley (The University of Western Australia)
Duration: 8 days (11 to 18 September), starting in Port Hedland and returning to Perth
Transport: Perth-Port Hedland flight, 4WD bus
Accommodation: Camping
Maximum participants: 20
Cost: AUD $1,850 - A Carnarvon to Perth flight can be included for
an additional AUD $250.
4. Time transect through the Hadean to Neoarchean geology of western Yilgarn Craton
Rocks of every Archean era are present in the western Yilgarn Craton, with zircons dating back to the Hadean also represented in clastic sedimentary rocks.
This excursion will investigate a time slice from the Hadean zircons at Jack Hills through Eo-, Paleo-, Meso- and Neoarchean rocks of the Narryer and Youanmi Terranes. A wealth of new isotopic, geochronological, geochemical, and geophysical data will be presented, in the context of new geological mapping, to see what insights they give into evolving early Earth processes and the development of related mineral systems.
Starting in the Jack Hills, site of the oldest known zircons on Earth, the excursion will visit Eo- to Paleoarchean gneisses of the Narryer Terrane, and then the recently documented Meo- to Neoarchean stratigraphy of the Youanmi Terrane, including the large layered mafic–ultramafic intrusions such as the Windimurra Igneous Complex, among the oldest of these features on Earth. Representative granite suites will be placed in the context of the overall tectonic history.
Leaders: Professor Simon Wilde (Curtin University of Technology), Mr Stephen Wyche & Dr Tim Ivanic (Geological
Survey of Western Australia)
Duration: 6 Days (11 to 16 September), starting in and returning to Perth
Transport: 4WD bus
Maximum participants: 30
Cost: AUD $1,250