The Musgrave

orogeny Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted t ...

was one of three

Mesoproterozoic The Mesoproterozoic Era is a geologic era that occurred from . The Mesoproterozoic was the first era of Earth's history for which a fairly definitive geological record survives. Continents existed during the preceding era (the Paleoproterozoic), ...

orogenic events affecting the Musgrave Province in Central Australia between 1.22 and 1.12 billion years ago. Earlier, 1.29 billion years ago the Musgrave Province formed as the North, West and South Australian

cratons A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging and ...

converged. The

granites Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main The three types of rocks, rock types, the others being Sedime ...

of the Pitjantjatjara Supersuite intruded during the event at high temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius. The event is interpreted as an intracontinental orogeny due to significant upwelling of heat and material from the

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

References

Orogenies of Australia {{Australia-stub

See also

References