Post-Heathcote Fault Zone Field Trip pt. 1

Three souls ventured out for a recon analysis of the Heathcote Fault Zone (HFZ) - a key boundary between the Melbourne zone and Bendigo-Ballarat zone of the Lachlan Fold Belt:

• Cass - resident photographer, documenter of all things good, evil and wonderful.

• Gen - resident structural geology extraordinaire and Melbourne Uni student

• Martin - moi

Braving the possibility of heavy winds, we travelled just 1.5 hours north of Melbourne to the town of Heathcote to explore two key exposures in the central portion of the HFZ:

1. Boundary of Heathcote Fault between Ordovician turbidites of the Bendigo-Ballarat zone and fault zone melange with blueschist knockers, metadiorites, serpentinites and large chert nodules

2. Deformation of Melbourne zone Devonian-Silurian turbidites approaching the Mt. William Fault

The following schematic section of the central region of the HFZ shows the general observations made during the trip:

Future field trips to the region will attempt to map the Heathcote Fault exposure in more detail in both the central and northern exposures of the HFZ and collect samples for thermobarometry and geochemical studies to better understand the nature of this tectonic boundary.