MacDonnell Ranges, Northern Territory, Australia ((tags: structure, fold-and-thrust belt, desert))

On the last episode of Pathological Geomorphology, commenter Matthew von der Ahe remarked that one of his favorite fold and thrust belts was the MacDonnell Ranges of central Australia. I'd never checked them out myself, and so this afternoon, I steered Flash Earth in that direction.

Oh yes. Oh yes, indeed. Very nice stuff. Thank you for the recommendation, Matthew!

Apparently, the sedimentary strata of the MacDonnell Ranges were deformed 300-350 Ma, which is more recently than I would have guessed, but there you have it. I know nothing about this area myself, so if anyone wants to pipe up in the comments and explain what the story is, please consider this your invitation. Here's what I was able to dig up: The area is apparently part of the Amadeus Basin, a Neoproterozoic-to-late-Paleozoic intracratonic sedimentary basin. According to the Northern Territory Geological Survey, it was "substantially affected by intraplate tectonics." You can see a suite of doubly-plunging anticlines here, with less spectacular wallflower synclines betwixt them.

There are also some nice incised meanders in the east. Check those out.

Here's the Flash Earth link so that you too can visit this parched land of folded rocks:
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=-23.942361&lon=132.682559&z=10.1&r=0&src=msl