Structural Setting of the Neoarchean Terrains in the Commonwealth Bay Area (143-145°E), Terre Adélie Craton, East Antarctica

Geological maps of East Commonwealth Bay Unit (ECB), (Terre Adélie and Georges V Land, Antarctica) are presented with a summary of the main structural and metamorphic data for the region. The ECB unit was developed during Neoarchean_Paleoproterozoic event (at 2.5-2.42 Ga), with (i) granulite metamorphism at 9±1.5 kbar and 800±50°C in the lower crust section and amphibolite metamorphism (P=5 kbar, T=750°C) at the upper crustal levels; (ii) the lower crustal granulites were uplifted, and suffered local partial melting and retrogression to the amphibolite facies at 550±50°C_5 kbar. Granulites were extruded in the core of a crustal-scale anticlinal fold, but retrogressed only on the rims of the anticline. Crustal-scale folding, along with other structural features resulted from intense NE-SW shortening that prevailed during the Neoarchean orogenic cycle. Strike-slip and extensional motions were only minor components in that process; (iii) top-to-the-East thrusting and nappe piling had (at least locally) occurred under lower amphibolite to greenschist facies conditions. Finally, it seems that (iv) the Paleoproterozoic 1.7 Ga structural imprint may have only affected the rims of the Archean units. The tectonic context observed in the 1.7 Ga Cape Hunter phyllites features mainly an E-W shortening component and vertical extrusion. The eastern (Mertz) and western (Port Martin) parts of the Archean block were reactivated by localized dextral shearing.