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Guide to Using the Australian Archean Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events Map

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Geoscience Australia has released two web-based map sheets (GeoCat 69347) that show the continental extent and age relationships of Archean mafic and ultramafic rocks and associated mineral deposits throughout Australia. Geoscience Australia Record 2009/41 is a user guide which compiles all the geological and geochronological data that underpins the information portrayed on these two new map sheets. The Archean eon (~4000 million years to 2500 million years) represents an early part of Earth's history that is noteworthy for the occurrence of unusual olivine-rich ultramafic rocks called komatiites which contain world-class deposits of nickel sulphides. Archean mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks with reliable crystallisation ages in Australia are confined to the older crustal components in Western Australia and South Australia. In this study, twenty-six Archean Magmatic Events (AME) ranging in age from the Eoarchean ~3730 Ma (AME 1) to the late Neoarchean ~2520 Ma (AME 26) were identified. This mafic-ultramafic magmatic event series is based on several hundred published age measurements, of which over 95 per cent are derived from recent Uranium-Lead dating of zircon and baddeleyite. The new map sheets, when used in association with the `Australian Proterozoic Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events' map published in 2008 (GeoCat 66114; GA Record 2008/15: GeoCat 66624), summarise the temporal and spatial evolution of Precambrian mafic-ultramafic magmatism in Australia. These maps provide a national framework for investigating under-explored and potentially mineralised environments, and assessing the role of mafic-ultramafic magmatism in the development of the Australian continent. The maps will be of interest to explorers searching for nickel, platinum-group elements, chromium, titanium, vanadium, and cobalt.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Guide to Using the Australian Archean Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events Map
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/dafe7a61-0f47-4dfd-a28d-428fe8fc9e4d
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -36.0
      ],
      [
        140.0,
        -36.0
      ],
      [
        140.0,
        -10.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -10.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -36.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Guide to Using the Australian Archean Mafic-Ultramafic Magmatic Events Map". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/guide-to-using-the-australian-archean-mafic-ultramafic-magmatic-events-map