25-27 July 2023 | Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia
Five diverse field trips are offered to you as part of this symposium.
Two pre-conference trips, that will respectively allow you to take a tour through the exquisitely exposed Pilbara Craton, exploring evolving Archean tectonic styles, or have a look at the newly defined boundary between the Youanmi Terrane and the SW Terrane.
Three different post-conference trips are organised, that will explore the unique Archean and Precambrian geology of Western Australia. Individual trips will focus on the tectono-magmatic and metamorphic evolution of the northern Yilgarn Craton, mineralization in the eastern Goldfields of the Yilgarn Craton, as well as the Archean–Proterozoic boundary preserved in the Mount Bruce Supergroup.
FT1 – Pilbara Craton: evolving Archean tectonic styles (17 – 23 July 2023) – NB: This field trip is now FULL
(Guides: Martin Van Kranendonk, Hugh Smithies) A week-long trip across the beautifully exposed Pilbara Craton, investigating two contrasting litho-stratigraphic terranes. This trip will commence with an exploration of the 3.5-3.2 Ga East Pilbara Terrane, with its classic granite dome-and-greenstone keel geometry indicative of “vertical tectonics”, and sites with traces of early life. It will then move to the western part of the craton, where we will investigate successions and structures that document a drastically different tectonic style, including an arc complex, and crustal-scale shear zones indicative of terrane accretion.
Participants are responsible for making and paying for their own travel arrangements to the field trip starting point (Port Hedland) and from the end point (Karratha). The excursion will leave from Port Hedland at 8:30 AM on Monday the 17th of July and will end in Karratha at around midday on Sunday the 23rd of July. Flights to and from the Pilbara are typically in high demand so we advise participants to book early. The trip cost includes all accommodation (camp bedding, food, tall stories!) which will include 5 nights camping (a chance of a shower on one night) and hotel accommodation on the last night. If there are any specific food requirements please notify us on registration.
Please contact the field trip leaders should you have any queries:
FT2 – Redefining Archean terrane boundaries: A radical update within the Yilgarn Craton (20 – 23 July 2023)
(Guides: Raphael Quentin de Gromard, Tim Ivanic) The far west and southwest Yilgarn represents perhaps the most geodynamically complex portion of the Yilgarn Craton and has recently become one of Western Australia’s prime new exploration frontiers. Recent work by the Geological Survey of Western Australia has proposed that the boundary between the c. 3010–2635 Ma Youanmi Terrane and the c. 2705–2610 Ma South West Terrane of the Archean Yilgarn Craton be relocated approximately 200 km to the southwest along the southwestern deformation front of the newly defined c. 2665–2635 Ma Corrigin Tectonic Zone (CTZ). This four-day excursion will visit key exposures of tectonized greenstones and high-grade gneisses in the well-exposed Toodyay-Northam area (about 100 km from Perth). The field sites will be an ideal platform from which to discuss the geological history of the southwest Yilgarn, the rationale for location of the terrane boundary and implications for Au–Cu, Ni–PGE, Ti–V, VMS, and Fe mineral systems.
Participants will depart the Geological Survey in Perth (100 Plain St., E Perth) by bus at 0800 Thursday 20th July 2023 and will be back in Perth by 1700 on the 23rd. The trip cost includes three nights’ accommodation at a motel (inn) and all food. If there are any specific food requirements please notify us on registration.
Trip cost: AU$ 1,760.00
Please contact the field trip leaders should you have any queries:
raphael.quentindegromard@dmirs.wa.gov.au
FT3 – Out with the old, in with the new — a traverse across the Archean-Proterozoic boundary in the Mount Bruce Supergroup (29 July – 4 August 2023)
(Guides: David Martin, Heather Howard) The Archean-Proterozoic boundary has always been regarded as reflecting a fundamental change in Earth surface processes and environments. However, the practicality of the currently accepted chronometric definition is increasingly being questioned. This trip will explore these processes and their products as documented in the exceptional Neoarchean to earliest Paleoproterozoic exposures of the Fortescue, Hamersley and Turee Creek Groups in Western Australia, and evaluate candidates for a chronostratigraphic GSSP related to the Great Oxidation Event.
The field trip departs Paraburdoo airport at 10 am on the 29th July and will return in time to check in for the afternoon or evening flights to Perth on the 4th August. In addition to the registration terms and conditions, participants will need to make flight arrangements to and from Paraburdoo at their own expense. The quoted field trip cost is based includes all road transport, national park entry fees, meals and tented accommodation. If there are any specific food requirements please notify us on registration.
Trip cost: AU$ 3,410.00
Please contact the field trip leaders should you have any queries:
FT4 – A traverse across the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia – from the Jack Hills to the Youanmi Terrane (29 July – 4 August 2023)
(Guides: Tony Kemp, Ivan Zibra) The one-week excursion will feature a west to east traverse across the northern Yilgarn Craton, combining geophysical, structural, geochemical, geochronological and isotopic data to outline the tectono-magmatic and metamorphic evolution of this large remnant of Eo- to Neoarchean continental crust. The excursion will start in the western corner of the craton, in the Narryer Terrane. Rocks of the Mt Narryer and Jack Hills metasedimentary belts, which both contain Hadean (> 4000 Ma) detrital zircon crystals, will be examined, along with flanking ancient quartzofeldspathic gneisses that have protolith ages from 3730 Ma to 2750 Ma. Granitic outcrops associated with cratonisation from 2680-2620 Ma will also be visited. In the western part of the Youanmi Terrane, the excursion will mainly focus on the structures developed during the c. 2730–2660 Ma Yilgarn Orogeny, with the aim of discussing the relationship between shearing, magmatism and crustal evolution from the thin-section scale up to the crustal scale. Main highlights include the Moyagee Fault near Mount Magnet, which represents the oldest-known seismogenic fault on Earth. The final part of the excursion will offer an overview on the c. 2750 Ma Yalgoo Dome, offering a glimpse of the tectonic style that prevailed during preorogenic times, which was characterized by large-scale granitic diapirism.
Trip cost: AU$ 3,190.00 (price covers the whole trip, starting and finishing in Perth)
Please contact the field trip leaders should you have any queries:
FT5 – Mineral Deposits in the Yilgarn Craton (29 July – 4 August 2023)
(Guides: Marco Fiorentini, Nico Thébaud) The Yilgarn Craton has long been recognised as having a world-class Au and Ni endowment. Yet the endowment varies dramatically between terranes of the Yilgarn and between constituent geological domains, showing a tendency to cluster in districts or ‘camps’. The one-week excursion will visit classic geological localities and both nickel and gold deposits from the Yilgarn Craton showcasing the deposit style diversity and focusing on mineral system formation from regional down to deposit scale formation. The field trip will visit a range of deposits and key regional outcrops from the Kalgoorlie Terrane.
The field trip will start and finish in Kalgoorlie. Participants will need to make flight arrangements to and from Kalgoorlie at their own expense. There are a number of flight options to get you from Perth to Kalgoorlie on Saturday 29 July. As we will depart directly from Kalgoorlie airport it is important to use the Qantas or Virgin Australia flight options listed below:
All accommodation and all meals are covered by the registration fees, with the exception of the lunch on the first and last day. For those days participants will be able to purchase lunch packs. On the evenings of the 29th and 30th of July we will be staying in Kalgoorlie (accommodation to be confirmed). On the 31st of July we will be staying at the Koolkyne Hotel. On the 1st 2nd and 3rd of August we will be staying in Leinster.
Trip cost: AU$ 2,310.00
Please contact the field trip leaders should you have any queries:
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