SUB-BASINS, DEPOSITIONAL CYCLES AND THE TECTONO-SEDIMENTARY SETTING OF THE HYC ZN-PB-AG DEPOSIT
The BCDC records a fundamental change from the generally stable shallow marine platformal conditions which persisted throughout much of the Palaeoproterozoic McArthur Group. Accelerated subsidence and transition to periods of sub-wave base, marine sedimentation were accompanied by generation of a complex fault-controlled palaeotopography and seismic activity as evidenced by rapid lateral and vertical facies variations, predominance of mass flow depositional processes and domains of liquefaction, talus and gravitationally/seismically-induced slide breccias. Subsidence histories were highly variable at the basin-scale, producing a compartmentalised sub-basin geometry and fragmentation of the underlying, carbonate-dominated platformal basement.
Facies architecture implies a sub-basin geometry involving interplay of major, multiply reactivated NW- to NNE-trending fault zones and roughly E-W trending hinge zones or growth faults. Marked facies variation occurs across structures of both orientations. However, in terms of generating basin foundering maxima, E-W trending structures were subordinate to deep-seated, broadly meridionally-striking fault segments, adjacent to which are the thickest accumulations of BCDC strata.