Dating andalusite in lower Rocky Cape Group

A collaborative study between MRT and UTAS has identified a previously undocumented metamorphic event in the lower Rocky Cape Group.

The paper, recently published in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences (AJES), is titled:  Mesoproterozoic age for andalusite in the lower Rocky Cape Group, northwest Tasmania. The research team generated new U-Th-Pb data via both electron mircoprobe analysis and U-Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (LA-ICPMS) to discover that the lowermost subdivision of the Rocky Cape Group in northwest Tasmania underwent metamorphism at ca 1100 Ma.

Correlation of 1100 Ma metamorphism in Tasmania and southwest Laurentia together with eastern Antarctica could help to confirm the position of Tasmania between Australia-Antarctica and Laurentia during the assembly of Rodinia.

Read the paper in AJES here.