Broken Hill Examining-an-ancient-landscape-1 Return To SciArt Ezine

This was the first work that I did at my Broken Hill residency that I feel was truly successful in heralding a new chapter for me as an artist. Through its creation I brought into play a methodology that I had envisaged before I embarked on my residency.The work examines the geology of Australia from the late Pre-Cambrian to Ordovician. The rocks of Broken Hill and the surrounding region are ancient this is reflected in the paleo-geological maps that I have chosen to use in my works.The work examines the geology of Australia from the late Pre-Cambrian to the Ordovician. The rocks of Broken Hill and the surrounding region are ancient this is reflected in the paleo-geological maps that I have chosen to use in my works.The bracket of time I investigate in this work dates from the break up of Rodinia 750 million years ago to 443 million years ago. This was the first work that I did at my Broken Hill residency that I feel was truly successful for it heralded a new chapter for me as an artist. The rocks of Broken Hill and the surrounding region are ancient, this is reflected in the paleo-geological maps that I have chosen to use in my works. Frequently I use the Tasman Line (represented in orange). The black dot on the orange line marks the approximate position of Broken Hill. The Tasman line marks the edge of a deep ocean trough. The small inlet which is repeated a number of times is Victor Harbor.The landscape in the bottom left corner reflects on geological findings suggesting that during a time in the Proterozoic an area slightly north of broken hill was glaciated. The little white areas left of the Black dot mark out this region. The top right corner features a strange snail like creature from the Cambrian. The bottom right area features a fossil of a jelly fish and a crinoids. Crinoids are related to starfish but I?ve always thought they looked more like sea weed. The top left displays the Tasman Line which divides Precambrian Australia from the more recent rock formations of the eastern seaboard. The red blotches mark out rock in the out backwhich displays Cambrian volcanic activity. The 2 circular blue dots display the approximate position of Broken Hill in the Precambrian (top left) and the Cambrian. The very pale blotches next to the top blue dot mark out some areas which yield Precambrian glacial sediments. It is believed that a glacier extended from Mount Painter to Broken Hill between 610 575 Ma.
Acknowledgements: Maps sourced from The Greening of Gondwana by Mary White and The Geology of Australia by David Johnson