Major paleogeographic and paleoclimatic changes during the late Paleozoic, Early Cretaceous and Cenozoic of central Australia and their influence on recycling of sediments

During the late Paleozoic glacial ice extended from Antarctica across most of the Australian part of Gondwana. Maximum ice thickness over Antarctica was ∼5400–8000 m and over central Australia 2700–4000 m. Asselian to Sakmarian warming led to in situ down wasting of ice, producing thick successions of proglacial sediments. Subsequent marine transgression penetrated along the southern lowland from the (now) southeast of the continent, but not into the Pedirka and Cooper basins. Early Jurassic subsidence in the central part of the Australian plate initiated development of the Eromanga Basin and fluviatile sedimentation. From the latest Jurassic to Early Cretaceous climate became progressively colder (Frakes Thermal Minimum), punctuated by two major glaciations and a lesser late Aptian event that are coincident with global cold intervals. Glacial debris was deposited along southern margins of the Eromanga Basin. Marine influence commenced in the latest Jurassic(?) to earliest Valanginian, followed by at least 14 transgressions and regressions in the Valanginian to early Cenomanian. Regression from the interior of the continent by the early Cenomanian led to fluvial to lacustrine conditions. Higher rainfall and temperature in the Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene promoted deep weathering. A drainage divide existed between the central part of the continent and the Eucla Basin. Subsidence in the late Paleocene initiated fluvial to lacustrine deposition in the Lake Eyre Basin. Climate during the ensuing late Paleocene to early Eocene in the central part of Australia was warmer than the south where cool temperate, high-rainfall conditions prevailed. Deposition during the middle Eocene to late Eocene spread over a large part of the interior of the continent in an endorheic drainage system akin to the Okavango delta in Botswana. Climate in the interior had become monsoonal, whereas along the southern coastal region conditions were moist, warm temperate fostering prolonged weathering and widespread silicification in the interior, a process probably extending into the Oligocene. By the early Neogene climate was warmer and drier in the interior, drainage was poor and rainfall strongly seasonal with high evaporation rates producing saline and carbonate-rich lakes. In the early to middle Miocene episodic subsidence in the Lake Eyre Basin, along with mild uplift along the southern basin margin and/or falling lake levels, led to stream rejuvenation.

Details