Stratigraphic implications of heterogeneous deformation in the Jones Creek conglomerate (Archaean), Kathleen Valley, Western Australia

Abstract

Rudaceous felsic to ultramafic clastic rocks of the Jones Creek Conglomerate are in tectonic contact with supracrustal mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks and associated fine‐grained sediments. All these rocks have a lower amphibolite facies mineralogy. Heterogeneously developed penetrative deformation has allowed sedimentary structures, including an unconformable contact between the Conglomerate and an adamellite, to be preserved in places. However, narrow, strike‐oriented zones containing blastomylonites and very flattened rudites normally characterize both contacts of the Conglomerate. Structural complexities within and at the contacts of the Conglomerate cast doubt on previous postulates that the Conglomerate separates an older from a younger supracrustal cycle.