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Geoscience

Tasman margin volcanism in eastern Australia

Gneissic granite
Gneissic granite xenolith (18 cm x 7 cm), Upper Coliban Dam, near Kyneton, Victoria. Photo: S Humphreys © Australian Museum.

Eastern Australia provides a splendid example of a major volcanic rift-related belt that has been active over the last 230 million years. The volcanic sequences have helped shape the eastern highlands and individual lavas contain many fragments of the underlying crust and mantle regions brought up as they ascended from depth. These provide pieces of a jigsaw to reconstruct the underlying regions. The eastern Australian volcanism project explores the ages, chemical composition and dynamic settings of this volcanic heritage.

Principal Investigators: Dr Lin Sutherland and Dr Ian Graham (Australian Museum), Dr Horst Zwingmann (CSIRO, Perth)

Dome Mountain
Dome Mountain, Belmore Province. West of Grafton, New South Wales. Photo: I Graham © Australian Museum.
Alk basalt
Alkali basalt. FOV 4.5 mm. Rowella, Tasmania. Photo: I Graham © Australian Museum.

Tholeiitic Dyke
Tholeiitic Dyke, Norah Head, Central Coast, New South Wales. Photo: I Graham © Australian Museum.
Basalt
Basalt. FOV 5.5 mm, Norah Head, New South Wales. Photo: I Graham © Australian Museum.

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