Neogene Billa Kalina Basin and Stuart Creek silicified floras, northern South Australia: a reassessment of their stratigraphy, age and environments
Silicified fossil macrofloras of the Willalinchina Sandstone, at Stuart Creek in the Billa Kalina Basin of northern South Australia, are most likely early Miocene–early Pliocene with preference for the younger age, based on reinterpretation of published evidence including basin stratigraphy, paleogeography, isotopic and other dating. The macrofloras include Eucalyptus and occur in fluvial channel sandstones. The Willalinchina Sandstone is equated with the Danae Conglomerate Member of the Mirikata Formation, interpreted as older than the Watchie Sandstone, Millers Creek Dolomite Member and Billa Kalina Clay Member, and here regarded as of upper Neogene age. The Billa Kalina Basin lies between Lake Eyre, Torrens and Eucla basins, and has affinities with all three. The Kingoonya Paleochannel, peripheral to the Eucla Basin, joins the southern margin of the Billa Kalina Basin across the Stuart Range Divide, and contains the Garford Formation of mid-Miocene to Pliocene age (palynological dating), here partly equated with the Mirikata Formation. Interpretations of paleolake Billa Kalina and associated paleochannel environments are made, based on a new assessment of stratigraphic and paleogeographic relationships.KEY POINTS
The Billa Kalina Basin sediments in northern South Australia are equated with the later Neogene ‘upper’ Garford Formation of the Kingoonya Paleochannel, which flowed into the Eucla Basin, and depositional processes are clarified.
A variety of consistent age data from adjacent basins and the Kingoonya Paleochannel indicate the Stuart Creek ‘silcrete floras’, associated with the Willalinchina Sandstone channel deposits, are Neogene, probably early Pliocene, but the possibility remains that they may be incised into the Watchie Sandstone and therefore late Pliocene.
The Billa Kalina Basin was linked to the Kingoonya Paleochannel through much of its history, with flow disrupted by the Stuart Range Divide, local tectonics, and regional tilting.
The Billa Kalina Basin sediments in northern South Australia are equated with the later Neogene ‘upper’ Garford Formation of the Kingoonya Paleochannel, which flowed into the Eucla Basin, and depositional processes are clarified.
A variety of consistent age data from adjacent basins and the Kingoonya Paleochannel indicate the Stuart Creek ‘silcrete floras’, associated with the Willalinchina Sandstone channel deposits, are Neogene, probably early Pliocene, but the possibility remains that they may be incised into the Watchie Sandstone and therefore late Pliocene.
The Billa Kalina Basin was linked to the Kingoonya Paleochannel through much of its history, with flow disrupted by the Stuart Range Divide, local tectonics, and regional tilting.
