An apatite U–Pb thermal history map for the northern Gawler Craton, South Australia

Apatite U–Pb thermochronology was applied to granitoid basement samples across the northern Gawler Craton to unravel the Proterozoic, post-orogenic, cooling history and to examine the role of major fault zones during cooling. Our observations indicate that cooling following the ∼2500 Ma Sleaford Orogeny and ∼1700 Ma Kimban Orogeny is restricted to the Christie and Wilgena Domains of the central northern Gawler Craton. The northern Gawler Craton mainly records post-Hiltaba Event (∼1590 Ma) U–Pb cooling ages. Cooling following the ∼1560 Ma Kararan Orogeny is preserved within the Coober Pedy Ridge, Nawa Domain and along major shear zones within the south-western Fowler Domain. The Nawa Domain samples preserve U–Pb cooling ages that are >150 Ma younger than the samples within the Coober Pedy Ridge and Fowler Domain, indicating that later (∼1300 Ma) fault movement within the Nawa Domain facilitated cooling of these samples, caused by arc collision in the Madura Province of eastern Western Australia. When compared to 40Ar/39Ar from muscovite, biotite and hornblende, our new apatite U–Pb ages correlate well, particularly in regions of higher data density. Our data also preserve a progressive younging of U–Pb ages from the nucleus of the craton to the periphery with a stark contrast in U–Pb ages across major structures such as the Karari Shear Zone and the Southern Overthrust, which indicates the timing of reactivation of these major crustal structures. Although this interpolation was based solely on thermochronological data and did not take into account structural or other geological data, these maps are consistent with the structural architecture of the Gawler Craton and reveal the thermal footprint of known tectonic and magmatic events in the Gawler Craton.