Horizontal Plate Motion: A Key Allocyclic Factor in the Evolution of the Great Barrier Reef

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Abstract
The Great Barrier Reef complex of northeastern Australia thins dramatically and becomes younger from north to south. These variations are a consequence of the Cenozoic northward movement of the Indian-Australian plate. The temperate climatic conditions that applied off northeast Australia during the early Tertiary were progressively replaced by tropical conditions. The present-day south-to-north facies distribution along the eastern Australian continental margin mimics the Cenozoic vertical facies sequence through the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef region.