The Capricorn Orogen, located in the Murchison and Gascoyne regions, records the assembly of a large part of 91¶ÌÊÓƵ during the Paleoproterozoic. The Capricorn Orogen was created when the Pilbara and Yilgarn Cratons collided with another ancient piece of land called the Glenburgh Terrane, forming what is known as the West Australian Craton.
This collision happened in two main stages:
- Ophthalmia Orogeny (2.2 – 2.1 billion years ago): The Pilbara Craton and Glenburgh Terrane collided.
- Glenburgh Orogeny (2.0 – 1.9 billion years ago): The West Australian Craton was fully formed when the Pilbara–Glenburgh block collided with the Yilgarn Craton.
Over the next billion years, the region experienced many tectonic events that shaped its rocks and landscapes. These include the Capricorn, Mangaroon, Mutherbukin, Edmundian, Kuparr, and Mulka events, which caused the crust to be deformed, reworked, and reactivated multiple times.
The Capricorn Orogen mapping project ran between 1996 and 2017, when over 44 detailed maps were released, along with reports that explain the details of its complex geological history. Detailed descriptions of all lithological units and tectonic events in the Capricorn Orogen can also be accessed through the Explanatory Notes System (ENS) on GeoVIEW.WA
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