Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Lake Amadeus probably originated as a result of Late Cainozoic warping with the consequent blocking of old river systems. Most are located in palaeochannels or palaeodrainages, as they form in long lines with fluvial sediments. Many are aligned, so are probably controlled by structure.
Dating of cores from Auger Island in Lake Amadeus has shown that saline, aeolian deposits were laid down about 900,000 BP, indicating that parts, at least, of central Australia was characterised by arid zone conditions, that resulted in the formation of salt lakes, gypsum deposits and wind-blown dunes, as far back as about 1 million years.

Lake Amadeus was one of a chain of playa lakes stretching from Lake Hopkins in Western Australia to the Finke River in the Northern Territory, along the centre of the Amadeus Basin, that provide evidence of extreme aridity leading up to the Last Glacial Maximum.

see Amadeus Basin (Amadeus Valley)

Sources & Further reading

1. Mary E White, Running Down, Water in a Changing Land, Kangaroo Press, 2000
2. Mary E White, After the Greening, The Browning of Australia, Kangaroo Press, 1994