Evidence for syndepositional deformation from the Late Devonian of the Mansfield Basin, east‐central Victoria

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Abstract
The Late Devonian‐Early Carboniferous Mansfield Basin is the northernmost structural sub‐basin of the Mt Howitt Province of east‐central Victoria. It is comprised predominantly of continental clastic sedimentary rocks, and is superimposed upon deformed Cambrian to Early Devonian marine sequences of the Palaeozoic Lachlan Fold Belt. This paper documents evidence for synsedimentary deformation during the early history of the Mansfield Basin, via sedimentological, structural and stratigraphic investigations. Repeating episodes of folding, erosion and sedimentation are demonstrated along the preserved western margins of Mansfield Basin, where fold structures within the lower sequences are truncated by intrabasinal syntectonic unconformities. A convergent successor basin setting (an intermontane setting adjacent to, or between major fault zones) is suggested for initial phases of basin deposition, with synsedimentary reverse faulting being responsible for source uplift and subsequent basin deformation. Palaeocurrents within conglomerate units indicate derivation from the west and are consistent with episodic thrusting along basin margin faults providing elevated source regions. Periods of tectonic quiescence are represented by finer grained meandering fluvial facies (indicative of lower regional topographic gradients) which display drainage patterns that appear not to have been influenced by bounding faults to the west. An up‐sequence increase in the textural and compositional maturity of basin sandstones and conglomerates is proposed to be a result of the incorporation of basin fill into ongoing basin deformation, with unstable metapelitic rocks being progressively winnowed from clast populations. Rather than resulting from Carboniferous (Kanimblan) reactivation of extensional structures, as is generally assumed, the deformation observed within the lower units of the Mansfield Basin is suggested here to be essentially syndepositional and at least Late Devonian in age.