Subduction geometry controls on dynamic topography: implications for the Jurassic Surat Basin

Abstract

The Late Jurassic Springbok unconformity in the Surat Basin remains to date at odds with our understanding of basin-forming processes. A previously proposed cause for the unconformity is uplift related to the rifting of the Argo landmass from Western Australia, but the great distance between the Surat Basin and the Argo rift-zone argues against this interpretation. A more likely scenario is that the uplift was related to a west-dipping subduction zone along the east Australian margin. Numerous examples around the world link subduction processes, such as tears and detaching segments of the slab, to variations in surface topography. We used geodynamic forward modelling to generate uplift in the overriding plate of a subduction zone, as well as topographic changes that occur as subduction is disrupted by slab breakoff or tears. Our findings suggest that slab tearing can produce distribution and magnitude of uplift consistent with the Jurassic uplift in the Surat Basin, which potentially adds new insights into the tectonic evolution of eastern Australia.

Keywords:

• Surat Basin
• dynamic topography
• geodynamic modelling
• Springbok unconformity
• slab detachment
• slab tearing

Acknowledgements

The present paper has been derived from honours work of the corresponding author (T.S.), which was supervised by Charles Verdel and co-supervised by V.B. and F.C. Charles Verdel is thanked for his essential support and dedication. The authors thank Lutz Gross, Cihan Altinay and the University of Queensland’s Centre for Geoscience Computing for access to parallel computation resources. We also thank Renate Sliwa for stratigraphic input, Joan Esterle, Christoph Schrank and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments and revisions and Luke Mondy for additional modelling insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.