Spatial and temporal variation in detrital zircon age provenance of the hydrocarbon-bearing upper Roper Group, Beetaloo Sub-basin, Northern Territory, Australia

We suggest that the provenance variation initially records exposure and denudation of western Queensland rocks at ca. 1400 Ma due to rifting between Laurentia and the North Australian Craton. From then until at least ca. 1320 Ma, the increased ca. 1740 Ma detritus suggests uplift of the Arunta Region that we interpret as reflecting collision between the southern North Australian Craton and the West Australian Craton as ca. 1300-1400 Ma. This tectonically-controlled provenance change is interpreted to have included erosion of nutrient rich arc-rocks that may have caused a bacterial bloom in the Roper Seaway. The Jamison sandstone and overlying Hayfield mudstone represent a marked change in provenance and were deposited after the Musgrave Orogeny, representing a newly-recognised siliciclastic basin that may have formed a shallow, long wavelength foreland basin to areas uplifted during the Musgrave Orogeny.