Palaeozoic suturing of eastern and western Tasmania in the west Tamar region: Implications for the tectonic evolution of southeast Australia

A new tectonic model for Tasmania incorporates subduction at the boundary between eastern and western Tasmania. This model integrates thin‐ and thick‐skinned tectonics, providing a mechanism for emplacement of allochthonous elements on to both eastern and western Tasmania as well as rapid burial, metamorphism and exhumation of high‐pressure metamorphic rocks. The west Tamar region in northern Tasmania lies at the boundary between eastern and western Tasmania. Here, rocks in the Port Sorell Formation were metamorphosed at high pressures (700–1400 MPa) and temperatures (400–500°C), indicating subduction to depths of up to 30 km. The eastern boundary of the Port Sorell Formation with mafic‐ultramafic rocks of the Andersons Creek Ultramafic Complex is hidden beneath allochthonous ?Mesoproterozoic turbidites of the Badger Head Group. At depth, this boundary coincides with the inferred boundary between eastern and western Tasmania, imaged in seismic data as a series of east‐dipping reflections. The Andersons Cr...