1.8–1.5-Ga links between the North and South Australian Cratons and the Early–Middle Proterozoic configuration of Australia David Giles * , Peter G. Betts, Gordon S. Lister School of Geosciences, Australian Crustal Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne VIC 3800, Australia Received 6 February 2003; accepted 20 November 2003 Abstract The Archaean and Early – Middle Proterozoic (1.8 – 1.5 Ga) terranes of the North Australian Craton and the South Australian Craton are separated by f 400 km of ca. 1.33 –1.10-Ga orogenic belts and Phanerozoic sediments. However, there is a diverse range of geological phenomena that correlate between the component terranes of the two cratons and provide evidence for a shared tectonic evolution between approximately 1.8 and 1.5 Ga. In order to honour these correlations, we propose a reconstruction in which the South Australian Craton is rotated f 52j counterclockwise about a pole located at f 136jE and f 25jS (present-day coordinates), relative to its current position. This reconstruction aligns the ca. 1.8 – 1.6-Ga orogenic belts preserved in the Arunta Inlier and the Gawler Craton and the ca. 1.6 – 1.5-Ga orogenic belts preserved in the Mount Isa Block and the Curnamona Province. Before 1.5 Ga, the South Australian Craton was not a separate entity but part of a greater proto- Australian continent which was characterised by accretion along a southward-migrating convergent margin (ca. 1.8 – 1.6 Ga) followed by convergence along the eastern margin (ca. 1.6 –1.5 Ga). After 1.5 Ga, the South Australian Craton broke away from the North Australian Craton only to be reattached in its current position during the ca. 1.33 – 1.10 Ga-Albany – Fraser and Musgrave orogenies. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Proterozoic; North Australian Craton; South Australian Craton; Plate reconstruction 1. Introduction In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to reconstruct the distribution of the continents in the Proterozoic. There are now numerous versions of the proposed Late Proterozoic supercontinent Rodinia (Moores, 1991; Dalziel, 1991; Hoffman, 1991; Brook- field, 1993; Li et al., 1995; Rogers, 1996; Karlstrom et al., 1999; Burrett and Berry, 2000; Sears and Price, 2000; Piper, 2000; Hartz and Torsvik, 2002). Several of these reconstructions (e.g., Rogers, 1996; Karl- strom et al., 1999; Burrett and Berry, 2000) rely on the matching of geologic phenomena of Early to Middle Proterozoic age and may have implications for the configuration of a proposed pre-Rodinian supercontinent that was assembled between 2.0 and 1.8 Ga (Hoffman, 1991; Condie, 2002). The published reconstructions for the possible Early to Middle Proterozoic supercontinent (e.g., Rogers, 1996; Karlstrom et al., 1999; Burrett and Berry, 2000) utilise an internal configuration of the component continents (e.g., Australia, Antarctica, Laurentia, Baltica) that is the same as during the Late 0040-1951/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2003.11.010 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: giles@mail.earth.monash.edu.au (D. Giles). www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto Tectonophysics 380 (2004) 27– 41