Lachlan Fold Belt, Southeastern Australia Overview The Lachlan Fold Belt of southeastern Australia is a 700 km wide belt of deformed, Paleozoic deep and shallow marine sedimentary rocks, cherts and mafic volcanic rocks.  Surface structural elements suggest that it was formed by massive telescoping and strike-slip translation within a continental margin sediment prism along the former eastern margin of Gondwanaland during the mid-Paleozoic (Gray 1997). The character of the Lachlan Fold belt is distinct and shows: the same general structural style and level of exposure along the entire 1000 km length and 700 km width (Gray 1997). the same lithotectonic assemblage, mostly of an Ordovician quartz-rich turbidite fans (Fergusson and Coney 1992). widespread granite plutons which account for 36% of surface outcrops (White and Chappel 1983). a minimum of 50% shortening in a 700 km wide belt (Gray 1988). no deep-seated crustal or basement rocks brought up to surface in any of the extensive ramping thrusts (Gray 1997). A pattern of compression and later extension within the evolution of the belt (Coney 1992). This page was created by Trey Wagner as my semester project for GEOS 527, Orogenic Systems, at the University of Arizona where I am working on my PhD in Reflection Seismology. Questions? Comments? Please contact fwagner@geo.arizona.edu Last updated May 8, 2001