The association boninite low‐ti andesite‐tholeiite in the heathcote greenstone belt, Victoria; ensimatic setting for the early lachlan fold belt

Abstract

The Heathcote Greenstone Belt is composed mainly of Lower Cambrian metavolcanic rocks and is one of three outcropping belts of the apparent basement to the Lachlan Fold Belt in SE Australia. The greenstones may be assigned to two broad magma series. A younger tholeiitic series with mid‐ocean ridge basalt (MORB) affinities has intruded through, and been erupted upon low‐Ti, intermediate SiO2 lavas. The latter were originally boninites (both clinoenstatite‐phyric and more fractionated orthopyroxene‐phyric varieties) and plagioclase‐phyric, low‐Ti andesites. They have partially re‐equilibrated to the lower greenschist facies and outcrop mainly in the central segment of the Heathcote Greenstone Belt, where deeper stratigraphic levels are exposed. Tholeiitic lavas and sills metamorphosed to the prehnite‐pumpellyite facies dominate the northern and southern segments. As the association boninite/low‐Ti lavas/MORB is known only from modern West Pacific‐type settings involving island arcs and backarc basins, the early history of the Lachlan Fold Belt is inferred to have taken place in a similar setting.