Ultra-hot Mesoproterozoic evolution of intracontinental central Australia

•Ultra-high temperature metamorphism results by delamination of mantle lithosphere.•Musgrave Province unique geo-position is responsible for prolonged UHT conditions.•Lithosphere delamination leads to bi-modal melting at shallow crustal levels.

The Musgrave Province developed at the nexus of the North, West and South Australian cratons and its Mesoproterozoic evolution incorporates a 100 Ma period of ultra-high temperature (UHT) metamorphism from ca. 1220 to ca. 1120 Ma. This was accompanied by high-temperature A-type granitic magmatism over an 80 Ma period, sourced in part from mantle-derived components and emplaced as a series of pulsed events that also coincide with peaks in UHT metamorphism. The tectonic setting for this thermal event (the Musgrave Orogeny) is thought to have been intracontinental and the lithospheric architecture of the region is suggested to have had a major influence on the thermal evolution. We use a series of two dimensional, fully coupled thermo-mechanical-petrological numerical models to investigate the plausibility of initiating and prolonging UHT conditions under model setup conditions appropriate to the inferred tectonic setting and lithospheric architecture of the Musgrave Province. The results support the inferred tectonic framework for the Musgrave Orogeny, predicting periods of UHT metamorphism of up to 70 Ma, accompanied by thin crust and extensive magmatism derived from both crustal and mantle sources. The results also appear to be critically dependent upon the specific location of the Musgrave Province, constrained between thicker cratonic masses.

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