Ordovician palaeogeography of the Lachlan Fold Belt: A modern analogue and tectonic constraints

Abstract

Re‐examination of Late Ordovician facies patterns and sediment movement patterns suggests a palaeogeography trending northwest for part of the Lachlan Fold Belt during this time. From southwest to northeast, the palaeogeography consists of a continental shoreline and shelf in western New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, a marginal sea in central New South Wales and Victoria, and a line of volcanic centres running southeast from northwestern New South Wales towards the south coast of New South Wales. The present‐day Andaman‐Nicobar region of the northeastern Indian Ocean has many similarities to this Late Ordovician palaeogeography and provides an important scale perspective. Although these two systems are useful geographic analogues they are not necessarily tectonic analogues.