학술논문

Using speleothems to constrain late Cenozoic uplift rates in karst terranes
Document Type
Academic Journal
Source
Geology (Boulder). 48(8):755-760
Subject
03|Geochronology
18|Geophysics - solid Earth (tectonophysics)
absolute age
Australasia
Australia
Buchan Australia
Cenozoic
chronology
East Victoria Highlands
exhumation
karst
Neogene
New Zealand
passive margins
plate tectonics
Pliocene
solution features
South Island
Southern Alps
speleothems
terranes
Tertiary
Th/U
U/Pb
U/Th/Pb
uplifts
upper Cenozoic
Victoria Australia
Language
English
ISSN
0091-7613
Abstract
The utility of speleothems as environmental and geological archives has greatly expanded with recent advances in geochronology. Here we reevaluate their ability to constrain late Cenozoic uplift in karst terranes. Using combined U-Th and U-Pb speleothem chronologies for the Buchan karst along the passive margin of southeastern Australia, we calculate a maximum uplift rate of 76±7 m m.y.-1 maintained over the past 3.5 m.y. The timing and extent of this process is consistent with independent constraints on Neogene uplift in Australia, possibly in response to increased plate-boundary strain with New Zealand. Speleothem chronologies provide highly precise age control on individual events and the potential for near-continuous records across long periods of geological time, complementing and expanding upon existing uplift proxies.