McArthur Basin
The McArthur Basin (English: McArthur Basin ) is a 180,000 km² sedimentary basin from the Creaton in northern Australia . Most of this basin is in the northeastern Northern Territory and extends into eastern Queensland .
The up to 12 km thick rock layers from marine and non-oceanic deposits formed from the late Paleoproterozoic to the Mesoproterozoic 1800 to 1430 million years ago. In the basin there are dolomite , mudstone and sandstones , as well as mafic (dark) and felsic (light) volcanic rocks and, to a lesser extent, dike rocks (micro-granite).
In this Australian sedimentary basin is the McArthur River zinc mine, one of the largest zinc-lead-silver deposits in the world, and other minerals, as well as the Merlin diamond mine and undeveloped iron deposits. Large areas of the sedimentary basin have not yet been geologically explored.
Web links
- nt.gov.au (PDF; 4.8 MB): Tectonostratigraphy of the McArthur Basin
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 15 ° 47 ′ 24 ″ S , 134 ° 50 ′ 24 ″ E