Tasman Geosyncline

Tasman Geosyncline, a linear trough in the Earth’s crust in which rocks that formed during the Paleozoic Era (542 million to 251 million years ago) were deposited in eastern Australia. Sedimentary and volcanic rocks accumulated in a broad belt extending from Tasmania on the south to Cape York on the north. Several orogenic or deformational events occurred during the existence of the Tasman Geosyncline, and these episodes folded and crumpled the rock strata. The most significant orogenies were the Benambran in Ordovician time, the Bowning in Late Silurian, the Tabberabberan in Middle Devonian, the Kanimblan in Early Carboniferous, and the Hunter-Bowen in Permian time. Younger, post-Paleozoic rocks are essentially flat-lying above the strata produced in the Tasman Geosyncline, thus attesting to the stability of eastern Australia since Permian time.