Cambro-Ordovician palaeomagnetic and geochronologic data from southern Victoria Land, Antarctica: revision of the Gondwana apparent polar wander path

We present new palaeomagnetic and isotopic data from the southern Victoria Land region of the Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica that constrain the palaeogeographic position of this region during the Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician. A new pole has been determined from a dioritic intrusion at Killer Ridge (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar biotite age of 499 ± 3 Ma) and hornblende diorite dykes at Mt. Loke (21°E, 7°S, A 95 = 8°, N = 6 VGPs). The new Killer Ridge/Mt. Loke pole is indistinguishable from Gondwana Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician poles. Previously reported palaeomagnetic poles from southern Victoria Land have new isotopic age constraints that place them in the Late Cambrian rather than the Early Ordovician. Based upon the new palaeomagnetic and isotopic data, new Gondwana Late Cambrian and Early Ordovician mean poles have been calculated.     

Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic palaeomagnetism of Australia – III. Bias-corrected pole paths for Australia, Antarctica and India

Summary. Palaeomagnetic results from Part I of this study and their analysis in Part II are combined to eliminate bias from the Cenozoic apparent polar wander path for Australia – a bias due to non-dipole components in past geomagnetic fields or, for poles calculated from hot-spot data, due to the motion of hot spots relative to the Earth's rotational axis. This path is extended in approximately bias-free form to the late Mesozoic, and indicates a significant change in the drift direction of the continent between 26 and about 60 Ma.
The bias-corrected Australian path is used, first, with seafloor spreading data for the Southern Ocean to derive a corresponding late Mesozoic–Cenozoic pole path for Antarctica. The latter shows that the Antarctic drift direction reversed in the early Tertiary. It is suggested that the early Tertiary directional changes of both Australia and Antarctica are part of a global reorganization of plates during the Eocene, postulated by Rona & Richardson, Cande & Mutter and Patriat & Achache.
Next, the Australian path is compared with hot-spot data from the African and Australian plates, indicating a movement of the hot spots relative the Earth's rotational axis during the Cenozoic. The direction of this movement is found to be consistent with previous results from other parts of the world.
Finally, the Australian path is used together with non-dipole components in the geomagnetic field to explain a prominent westward displacement of the mid- and late Cenozoic poles of India relative to those of Australia.
Because of uncertainties in the original poles and in the analysis, the present results are likely to contain appreciable errors. Nevertheless, their consistency with independent findings supports the dipole-quadrupole model of Part II for mid- and late Cenozoic geomagnetic fields.     

东南极格罗夫山地区冰碛石碎石带中高压麻粒岩和正片麻岩的锆石年代学研究及其构造意义

东南极的格罗夫山是普里兹造山带向南极内陆的延伸部分。对格罗夫山不同碎石带中收集的高压麻粒岩和正片麻岩进行锆石U-Pb年代学研究。四个高压麻粒岩的锆石多数为变质新生锆石,仅少数保留有继承核,其年龄为2633—2502 Ma。在变质锆石中获得~570 Ma和~555—545 Ma两个阶段变质年龄,锆石微量元素特征显示为重稀土亏损,结合前人研究结果,推测这两阶段年龄分别代表了变质作用过程中的进变质和高压峰期变质年龄。两个正片麻岩的锆石普遍发育核-边结构,由一个发育振荡环带的岩浆核和均匀无环带的变质边组成。正片麻岩的原岩年龄存在差异,在样品GR14-3-4的锆石核部获得了1060±40 Ma的上交点年龄,其原岩可能来自格罗夫山东南部的冰下高地,而在样品GR14-5-4的锆石核部获得的原岩年龄为917±4 Ma,与格罗夫山基岩中的基性麻粒岩和正片麻岩的原岩年龄一致。在锆石边部获得的变质年龄较为一致,为~530 Ma,与以前在高压麻粒岩中获得的退变质年龄相当。本次研究确认了高压麻粒岩在格罗夫山地区不同碎石带中分布的广泛性,表明其可能普遍存在于格罗夫山冰下高地之中。同时也进一步证明格罗夫山冰下高地并没有受到格林维尔期构造热事件的影响,而是只经历了泛非期的单相变质构造旋回。     

The Weathering of Granodiorite Porphyry in the Thiel Mountains, Inland Antarctica

The weathering of granodiorite porphyry is examined in the extremely cold and dry environment of the inland part of Antarctica. Weathering features include granular disintegration, rock varnish, and sheeting. Sheeting has gradually proceeded since the exposing of the nunatak, but the other types of weathering have not actively advanced in recent times.
Granular disintegration primarily comprises the release of individual crystals. The mechanism of this release is that cracks are created along crystal boundaries and cleavages in phenocrysts mainly due to differential thermal expansion. Plagioclase and hypersthene are released more readily than quartz. Disintegration of plagioclase has produced many prism-shaped holes, 0.5 to 2.0 mm in length, while fine-grained quartz crystals, 0.05 to 0.1 mm in diameter, are incidentally released without cracking.
The reddish brown (10R4/4) rock varnishes result from oxidation and consist of limonite, which fills cracks and penetrates into crystals. Ferrous iron in hypersthene, biotite, ilmenite and magnetite is transformed into limonite by oxidation. Manganese is not found in the varnishes. Sulfur, which is important for oxidation and which may have originated from adhered snow, is concentrated on the surface of the rock.
Sheeting has precipitated rock falls, and has gradually formed a gray mosaic on the varnished wall. The sheeting was caused by gravitational body force, which is internal stress of the rock body due to the mass of the overburden.     

Quaternary bedrock erosion and landscape evolution in the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica: Reevaluating rates and processes

Rates and processes of rock weathering, soil formation, and mountain erosion during the Quaternary were evaluated in an inland Antarctic cold desert. The fieldwork involved investigations of weathering features and soil profiles for different stages after deglaciation. Laboratory analyses addressed chemistry of rock coatings and soils, as well as ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al exposure ages of the bedrock. Less resistant gneiss bedrock exposed over 1 Ma shows stone pavements underlain by in situ produced silty soils thinner than 40 cm and rich in sulfates, which reflect the active layer thickness, the absence of cryoturbation, and the predominance of salt weathering. During the same exposure period, more resistant granite bedrock has undergone long-lasting cavernous weathering that produces rootless mushroom-like boulders with a strongly Fe-oxidized coating. The red coating protects the upper surface from weathering while very slow microcracking progresses by the growth of sulfates. Geomorphological evidence and cosmogenic exposure ages combine to provide contrasting average erosion rates. No erosion during the Quaternary is suggested by a striated roche moutonnée exposed more than 2 Ma ago. Differential erosion between granite and gneiss suggests a significant lowering rate of desert pavements in excess of 10 m Ma^− 1. The landscape has been (on the whole) stable, but the erosion rate varies spatially according to microclimate, geology, and surface composition.     

Inferred ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism of amphibolitized olivine granulite from the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica

This paper reports the first evidence of ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism from the Sør Rondane Mountains, eastern Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, which is evident as orthopyroxene + spinel symplectite in an amphibolitized mafic granulite. The granulite consists of olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, pargasitic amphibole, plagioclase, and ilmenite, and it possesses a within-plate alkali basalt signature. The local bulk chemical composition of symplectite, major and trace element compositions, and thermodynamic calculations for the symplectite, suggest the presence of garnet at the high-pressure stage and that the symplectite formed from garnet, olivine, and primary orthopyroxene by decompression from more than 12 kbar at 1000 °C. The granulite records a subsequent amphibolite-facies overprint (<700 °C at <6 kbar) that involved the chemical re-equilibration of several phases. The obtained pressure–temperature (P–T) conditions and P–T path are different from the UHT metamorphism from the Schirmacher Hills, central Dronning Maud Land, which is considered to have occurred in a back-arc tectonic setting. The relatively high-P conditions and the decompression path reconstructed in the present study are similar to those reported for southern India, Sri Lanka, and part of northeastern Mozambique, possibly reflecting continental thickening and exhumation during the main collision event between East and West Gondwana.     

天山东部冰川积雪中大气粉尘的沉积特征

对我国天山东部三个研究点乌鲁木齐河源1号冰川、奎屯哈希勒根51号冰川和哈密庙尔沟平顶冰川积雪中大气粉尘沉积进行了分析研究。微粒特征分析表明,自西向东随着研究点地理环境的变化,积雪中不溶微粒的质量浓度、沉积通量和体积粒径分布众数都表现出增高趋势：奎屯哈希勒根51号冰川最小,乌鲁木齐河源1号冰川次之,哈密庙尔沟平顶冰川最大;三个研究点粒径0．57〈d〈26μm微粒的平均质量浓度分别是969μg／kg、1442μg／kg、3690μg／kg,年均沉积通量分别是58．2μg／cm^2、72．1μg／cm^2、73．8μg／cm^2。表明,哈密冰川受粉尘源影响较大．而乌鲁木齐河源与奎屯河源区受影响则相对较小。雪坑微粒浓度剖面和离子相关性分析表明,天山东部冰川积雪中污化层富含亚洲粉尘的富Ca^2＋、Na^2＋矿物;微粒体积一粒径分布众数介于3-22μm．粒径分布显示了单结构模式。研究区最近4年积雪的污化层剖面揭示了春季零星的粉尘浓度峰值以及沉积数量上较大的年际变化,意味着天山东部雪冰中粉尘沉积对大气环境变化的敏感性。