The Flinders Ranges is the longest mountain range in South Australia. Stretching over 430km from near Port Pirie in the south to Mount Hopeless in the northeast, the main range is formed by a folded sequence of Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks with inliers of older middle Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Named in honour of Matthew Flinders, who recorded their first sighting in 1802, their extent would not be fully known until Edward John Eyre reached the northern tip in 1840. He named Mt Deception and Mt Hopeless after seeing dry salt lakes from their summits and assumed that the top end of the Flinders Ranges was surrounded by a horse-shoe shaped impassible salt lake.

Minerals were first found throughout the district during the 1850's, as pastoralists ventured northwards from Quorn and opened up the land. Copper was found in the northern part of the ranges while barytes was found in the southern part. The majority of the mineral deposits scattered throughout the Flinders Ranges are associated with the action of diapirs and then a folding event during the late Cambrian. These provided fracture zones in the rock where minerals could be deposited.

The Northern Flinders Ranges section starts along a longitude line just south of the township of Blinman and extends through to Arkaroola-Mount Painter in the northeast and the Willouran Range in the northwest.

In this area are the zinc deposits around Beltana, the copper deposits of Blinman, Yudnumutana and Mount Burr, silver deposits around Lyndhurst, talc mines near Mount Freeling, uranium deposits near Mount Painter and coal mines at Leigh Creek.

The area is reached via the Main North Road from Adelaide, either following the western route via Port Augusta, Quorn and Hawker to Leigh Creek (550km) or the eastern route up the Barrier Highway to Yunta then north via Frome Downs and Balcanoona to Arkaroola (600km). There are several cross roads and loop roads that connect other locations within the Flinders Ranges, such as: Wilpena Pound, Blinman, Chambers Gorge and Lyndhurst.

Regions containing this locality

Australian Plate (Australia Plate)	Tectonic Plate
Delamerian Orogen, Australia	Orogen

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Ediacaran - Cryogenian 541 - 720 Ma ID: 871288

Umberatana Group Age: Neoproterozoic (541 - 720 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Umberatana Group Description: Tillite; sandstone; siltstone; arkose; dolomite; quartzite; conglomerate; shale; greywacke. Comments: feldspar- or lithic-rich arenite to rudite; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Feldspar- or lithic-rich arenite to rudite Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Neoproterozoic 541 - 1000 Ma ID: 3186197

Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks Age: Neoproterozoic (541 - 1000 Ma) Comments: Adelaide Fold Belt Lithology: Sandstone,shale,limestone,siltstone,tillite,dolomite Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References

Localities in this Region

Show map