tuppence wrote: it is not greenchrist facies in that area we photographed. Preiss specifically states it was formed under low pressure/high temperature conditions.
Actually Preiss states quite specifically in his e-mail (regarding Barry's page) that:
About Second Valley, if you have not been there, it is well worth a visit from a structural point of view. Barry's photos handsomely display the stacked, isoclinal, recumbent folds in the Tapley Hill Formation, just below the Brighton Limestone which forms the headland in his photos. Sure, these fine-grained metasediments were not cracked - why should they be? They were thoroughly ductile when they were deformed and are at least at upper greenschist facies if not higher. But they do have a strong axial planar fabric, which dips at ~30° to the southeast. The interesting thing here is how the fold axes also plunge to the southeast - presumably rotated into the NW transport direction (see Neil Mancktelow's paper). This is in the middle of the area which probably experienced the greatest degree of Delamerian shortening seen anywhere in the orogen.
We urge you to take a lovely vacation to Australia and visit this area for yourself. It's gorgeous. You will also, if you go, appreciate the Flinders Ranges at the northern part of the geosyncline. Please take the private plane ride over the area and note the formations for yourself. It most certainly does not speak of anything slow in the processes which formed this!
If I ever get there I certainly will visit. I agree that things here happened quickly
on geologic time scales, but certainly not on the time scales required for your bias.
-E