SHRIMP zircon dating of the Permian system of eastern Australia

SHRIMP zircon dates from Permian ignimbrites and tuffs associated with fossiliferous strata within the Sydney‐Bowen Basin and New England Orogen are used to establish a time scale for the Permian System in eastern Australia. For the first time this enables direct correlation of the eastern Australian Lower Permian succession with similarly measured ages in the Permian type sections in the Russian Urals; new SHRIMP ages from tuffs within the Russian Lower Permian succession are being published elsewhere. An additional tie point with the Russian Kazanian Stage is achieved by means of a SHRIMP date in Australia constrained by foraminifers of the Pseudonodosaria borealis Zone. Almost all the other Permian biota in eastern Australia are Gondwanan; they provide the basis for regional biostratigraphic correlation, but cannot be used to correlate with the type Russian Permian. Integration of the numerical time and biostratigraphic scales indicates diachronous relationships between formations within both the Sydne...