Pyroxene exsolution in mafic granulites from the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica: constraints on Pan-African metamorphic conditions

This study demonstrates the results of Russian airborne radio-echo sounding (RES) investigations and also seismic reflection soundings carried out in 1971–2020 over a vast area of coastal part of East Antarctica. It is the first comprehensive summary mapping of these data. Field research, equipment, errors of initial RES data, and methods of gridding are discussed. Ice thickness, ice base elevation, and bedrock topography are presented. The ice thickness across the research area varies from a few meters to 3620 m, and is greatest in the local subglacial depressions. The average thickness is about 1220 m. The total volume of the ice is about 710,500 km3. The bedrock heights vary from 2860 m below sea level in the ocean bathyal zone to 2040 m above sea level in the Grove Mountains area (4900 m relief). The main directions of the bedrock orographic forms are concentrated mostly in three intervals: 345∘–30∘, 45∘–70∘, and 70∘–100∘. The bottom melting rate was estimated on the basis of the simple Zotikov model. Total annual melting under the study area is about 0.633 cubic meters. The total annual melting in the study area is approximately 1.5 mm/yr.

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The deformational history of the Larsemann Hills, Prydz Bay: the importance of the Pan-African (500 Ma) in East Antarctica

Antarctic Science ◽

10.1017/s0954102093000240 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 179-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Paul H. G. M. Dirks ◽

Chris J. Carson ◽

Chris J. L. Wilson

Keyword(s):

Water Pressure ◽

Granulite Facies ◽

East Antarctica ◽

Main Stage ◽

Melt Crystallization ◽

Early Form ◽

Alteration Zones ◽

Larsemann Hills ◽

Pan African ◽

Complex Structural

The Larsemann Hills represent a low-pressure granulite terrain with a complex structural-metamorphic history that comprises two parts: 1) granulite facies D1 structures transposed within an early form surface that probably formed at 1000 Ma, and 2) a sequence of progressive, upper amphibolite to lower granulite facies D2–D6 structures that formed during the Pan-African at 500 Ma and were associated with the emplacement of granites and pegmatites with high-grade alteration zones. D2–D6 events comprise an early form surface that has been tightly folded and sheared twice after which it was warped and transected by discrete mylonites. D2–D6 assemblages are associated with decompression textures on D1 peak-assemblages, such as cordierite coronas on garnet + sillimanite in metapelite and plagioclase coronas on garnet in metabasite. This suggests that D2–D6 formed at slightly lower pressures than D1 structures. However, the spatial correlation between the coronas and alteration zones around pegmatitic intrusives indicates that the apparent decompression textures may have partly resulted from transient fluxes in water pressure following melt crystallization. Throughout East Antarctica tectonic provinces have been recognized in which the 1000 Ma tectonothermal events are identified as the main stage in the evolution, and Pan-African events are dismissed as a minor thermal overprint. Although the Larsemann Hills are small in area, they are representative of a great many granulite terrains in East Antarctica, and suggest that great care is needed in the structural-metamorphic analysis of such terrains to ensure the separation of tectonic stages before an interpretation of the tectonic path is attempted.

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Mid-late Pleistocene glacial evolution in the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica, constraints from cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure dating of glacial erratic cobbles

Quaternary Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.030 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 145 ◽

pp. 71-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Guocheng Dong ◽

Feixin Huang ◽

Chaolu Yi ◽

Xiaohan Liu ◽

Weijian Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Pleistocene ◽

East Antarctica ◽

Surface Exposure Dating ◽

Exposure Dating ◽

Cosmogenic 10Be ◽

Grove Mountains

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Pan-African granites in central Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica: Product of collision or intra-plate event?

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft ◽

10.1127/zdgg/154/2004/469 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 154 (4) ◽

pp. 469-479 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Norbert W. Roland ◽

Martin Olesch

Keyword(s):

East Antarctica ◽

Pan African ◽

Dronning Maud Land

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Properties of soils in Grove Mountains, East Antarctica

Science in China Series D Earth Sciences ◽

10.1360/03yd9060 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 46 (7) ◽

pp. 683 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Xiaoli LI

Keyword(s):

East Antarctica ◽

Grove Mountains

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The Main Shear Zone in Sør Rondane, East Antarctica: Implications for the late-Pan-African tectonic evolution of Dronning Maud Land

Tectonics ◽

10.1002/2014tc003763 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 34 (6) ◽

pp. 1290-1305 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Antonia S. Ruppel ◽

Andreas Läufer ◽

Joachim Jacobs ◽

Marlina Elburg ◽

Nicole Krohne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Shear Zone ◽

Tectonic Evolution ◽

East Antarctica ◽

Pan African ◽

Dronning Maud Land

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First report of Pan-African Sm—Nd and Rb—Sr mineral isochron ages from regional charnockites of southern India

Geological Magazine ◽

10.1017/s0016756800013583 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 132 (3) ◽

pp. 253-260 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

C. Unnikrishnan-Warrier ◽

M. Santosh ◽

M. Yoshida

Keyword(s):

Sri Lanka ◽

Shear Zone ◽

East Antarctica ◽

Southern India ◽

Peninsular India ◽

Pan African ◽

Mineral Isochron ◽

Nd Model Age ◽

Tectonothermal Event ◽

Good Agreement

AbstractMineral and whole-rock isotope data for a massive charnockite from Kottaram in the Nagercoil Block at the southern tip of Peninsular India yield Sm—Nd and Rb—Sr ages of 517 ± 26 Ma and 484 ± 15 Ma respectively. The Nd model age calculated for the charnockite is c. 2100 Ma. Our study reports the first Pan-African mineral isochron ages from regional charnockites of Peninsular India, which are in good agreement with the recently obtained ages of incipient charnockites in the adjacent blocks, as well as alkaline plutons within the same block. Our results indicate that the Pan-African tectonothermal event in the granulite blocks south of the Palghat—Cauvery shear zone was regional, with terrain-wide rejuvenation. These results correlate with similar Pan-African tectono-thermal events reported from Sri Lanka and East Antarctica, and have an important bearing on Gondwana reconstructions.

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