Palaeoproterozoic tectonics and the earliest eclogites

An ARC Discovery project - DP0774019

Project Investigators

Rachael Brick (PhD candidate)

Doctor Karin Barovich

Doctor Alan Collins

Associate Professor Martin Hand

Associate Professor Graham Heinson

Project Collaborator

Abdul Mruma

Project Details

In the modern Earth the preservation of low/medium temperature eclogites requires rapid burial and exhumation; conditions which are commonly found in subduction systems. Eclogites are rare in the older geological record either because they didn't form because of a hotter Earth, or because exhumation did not occur in the same way as it does today. The oldest known in-situ eclogites are found around the Tanzanian craton central East Africa and have recently been dated at 2.0 Ga. This project will study the orogenic setting of these eclogites by using structural, thermochronological and thermo-barometric data collected both in the field and in the laboratory. The project will be run in collaboration with the Tanzanian Geological Survey and form a part of the new International Geological Correlation Programme (IGCP) 509-Palaeoproterozoic supercontinents and global evolution.

This project is funded by ARC and the Geological Survey of Tanzania and run in conjunction with IGCP 509 - 'Palaeoproterozoic Supercontinents and Global Evolution'

Field work in Tanzania, was conducted in November, 2006 and May-July, 2007 as part of this project.