Detrital zircon provenance constraints on the evolution of the Harts Range Metamorphic Complex (central Australia): links to the Centralian Superbasin

Until recently it has been widely accepted that protoliths to metasediments of the Harts Range Metamorphic Complex (central Australia) were deposited prior to <em>c</em>. 1.75 Ga and form part of the Palaeoproterozoic Arunta Inlier. However, new sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U–Pb analyses of detrital zircon, together with recently published data, suggest that they were deposited coeval with <em>c</em>. 545–520 Ma sediments from the adjacent, little metamorphosed Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic Centralian Superbasin. Protoliths of the Harts Range Metamorphic Complex were deposited in the Irindina sub-basin, an early- to mid-Cambrian rift located between the present-day Amadeus and Georgina Basin remnants of the Centralian Superbasin. Deposition occurred during a widespread and long-lived interval of extension in parts of central Australia associated with eruption of the voluminous Kalkarinji Continental Flood Basalts. The Harts Range Metamorphic Complex was metamorphosed to upper amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions within <em>c</em>. 40 Ma of deposition of its sedimentary protoliths.