Stalled Orogen Linked to East Antarctic Craton Assembly

Abstract:

The interior of East Antarctica is often regarded as a coherent Archean craton surrounded by Paleo to Neoproterozoic orogenic belts. Here we use recent aerogeophysical, satellite magnetic, satellite gravity and passive seismic results in central East Antarctica to challenge this view.

Firstly, anomalously thick crust (compared to most other cratons) has been imaged in East Antarctica by both passive seismic and gravity modelling with values up to 60 km (Ferraccioli et al., 2011, Nature; An et al., 2015, JGR). The thick crust underlies both the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains and an elevated region between Lake Vostok and Dronning Maud Land, referred to as the East Antarctic Mountain Ranges plateau (An et al., 2015).

Second, satellite magnetic data reveal that the Gamburtev Province lies in between the Ruker/Princess Elizabeth Land, Vostok, Nimrod/South Pole and Recovery provinces. The Nimrod/ South Pole province is a Paleo to Meso Proterozoic igneous province formed along the edges of the Archean/Paleoproterozoic Mawson continent (e.g. Goodge and Fanning, 2010 JGR). Our aerogeophysical and sediment provenance data interpretations suggest that the Gamburtsev Province represents a distinct Grenvillian-age orogenic belt.

A stalled orogen with thick crust (i.e. an orogen where widespread orogenic collapse and root delamination has not occurred)- is preserved in the interior of East Antarctica resembling e.g. the Paleoproterozoic Trans Hudson Orogen and segments of Grenvillian orogens in Laurentia. The stalled orogen may relate to widespread accretionary and collisional events within Rodinia. However, passive seismic interpretations (An et al., 2015) favour linking crustal thickening to the Pan-African age assembly of Greater India, East Antarctica and Australia within Gondwana (e.g. Aitken et al., 2014 GRL).

Further aerogeophysical observations over Princess Elizabeth Land are timely to enable more robust correlations with geological observations and to help dating the proposed orogenic events further in the interior. Additionally, future plans to drill the bedrock in the Gamburtsev Mountains and South Pole regions may provide a new glimpse into the subglacial geology of the composite East Antarctic Craton.