The Tasman orogenic belt of eastern Australia includes the Lachlan fold belt on the west and the New England fold belt on the east. There are a number of orogenic models for these areas including thick-skinned tectonics involving basement rocks and thin-skinned tectonics involving thrust belt telescoping. The north coast of Tasmania exposes a cross-section of the Tasman orogenic belt, including basement exposures and thus provides an ideal location to test the various hypotheses. This project will study the structural geometry and rock fabrics along a 110 km geotraverse on the north coast of Tasmania in conjunction with investigators at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Results will help constrain mechanical modelling of terrane accretion processes for Tasmania and Victoria. Results are also important in placing Tasmania in plate tectonic reconstructions of the Australia-Antarctic continental breakup.
