Geology of Queensland

The Thomson Orogen occurs in the central and southern parts of Queensland, but is mostly covered by younger basins.

[4] The Mount Isa Orogen started with sediments, volcanics and intrusive rocks, and was deformed and metamorphosed during the Barramundi Orogeny 1870 Mya.

[5] The Savannah Province on Cape York initially formed around 1585 to 1550 Mya as sediments, but are now converted to slate, phyllite, schist, gneiss and quartzite.

The Winton Formation represent remnants of the river plains that filled the basin left by the Eromanga Sea.

The Toolebuc Formation which contains strata dating back to the early Cretaceous and is partly located in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Stretching of the continental crust of the New England Orogen in the Permian period formed the Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin System.

It includes the Chillagoe Belt, Normanby Platform, Atherton Tableland, Mount Emu Lava Plains and the Cairns Littoral.

Ports at Hay Point, Queensland and Gladstone provide access for coal to export markets.

Beneath the Eromanga basin in the mantle below 200 km is a region of fast seismic wave transmission.

[4] The Surat Basin is made up of Jurassic through to Cretaceous aged sediments derived from Triassic and Permian arc rocks of the Hunter-Bowen orogeny.

The Queensland Government appointed its first geologist Christopher D'Oyly Hale Aplin on 1 April 1868, and the second one Richard Daintree on 12 May 1868 to explore the northern regions.

In 1875 Augustus Charles Gregory was appointed as the geologist for the southern part of Queensland, and Robert Logan Jack started work in 1877 in Townsville.

Other minerals mined in the state include copper, lead, silver, zinc, gold, phosphate rock, magnesite and silica sand.