Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T21:00:57.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

New constraints on metamorphism in the Highjump Archipelago, East Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2016

Naomi M. Tucker*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, School of Physical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
Martin Hand
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, School of Physical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

Abstract

The age and conditions of metamorphism in the Highjump Archipelago, East Antarctica, are investigated using samples collected during the 1986 Australian Antarctic expedition to the Bunger Hills–Denman Glacier region. In situ U-Pb dating of monazite from three metasedimentary rocks yields ages between c. 1240–1150 Ma and a weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 1183±8 Ma, consistent with previous constraints on the timing of metamorphism in this region and Stage 2 of the Albany–Fraser Orogeny in south-western Australia. This age is interpreted to date the development of garnet ± sillimanite ± rutile-bearing assemblages that formed at c. 850–950°C and 6–9 kbar. Peak granulite facies metamorphism was followed by decompression, evidenced largely by the partial replacement of garnet by cordierite. These new pressure–temperature determinations suggest that the Highjump Archipelago attained slightly higher temperature and pressure conditions than previously proposed and that the rocks probably experienced a clockwise pressure–temperature evolution.

Type
Earth Sciences
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aitken, A.R.A. & Betts, P.G. 2008. High-resolution aeromagnetic data over central Australia assist Grenville-era (1300–1100 Ma) Rodinia reconstructions. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, 10.1029/2007GL031563.Google Scholar
Anderson, J.R., Kelsey, D.E., Hand, M. & Collins, W.J. 2013. Conductively driven, high-thermal gradient metamorphism in the Anmatjira Range, Arunta region, central Australia. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 31, 10031026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betts, P.G. & Giles, D. 2006. The 1800–1100 Ma tectonic evolution of Australia. Precambrian Research, 144, 92125.Google Scholar
Bodorkos, S. & Clark, D.J. 2004. Evolution of a crustal‐scale transpressive shear zone in the Albany–Fraser Orogen, SW Australia: 2. Tectonic history of the Coramup Gneiss and a kinematic framework for Mesoproterozoic collision of the West Australian and Mawson cratons. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 22, 713731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boger, S.D. 2011. Antarctica – before and after Gondwana. Gondwana Research, 19, 335371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, S., Klemd, R. & Okrusch, M. 2003. Ultrahigh-temperature metamorphism and multistage evolution of garnet–orthopyroxene granulites from the Proterozoic Epupa Complex, NW Namibia. Journal of Petrology, 44, 11211144.Google Scholar
Brown, M. 1993. P-T-T evolution of orogenic belts and the causes of regional metamorphism. Journal of the Geological Society, 150, 227241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caddick, M.J., Konopásek, J. & Thompson, A.B. 2010. Preservation of garnet growth zoning and the duration of prograde metamorphism. Journal of Petrology, 51, 23272347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cawood, P.A. & Korsch, R.J. 2008. Assembling Australia: Proterozoic building of a continent. Precambrian Research, 166, 138.Google Scholar
Clark, C., Kirkland, C.L., Spaggiari, C.V., Oorschot, C., Wingate, M.T.D. & Taylor, R.J. 2014. Proterozoic granulite formation driven by mafic magmatism: an example from the Fraser Range Metamorphics, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 240, 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D.J., Hensen, B.J. & Kinny, P.D. 2000. Geochronological constraints for a two-stage history of the Albany–Fraser Orogen, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 102, 155183.Google Scholar
Clarke, G.L., Sun, S.S. & White, R.W. 1995. Grenville-age belts and associated older terranes in Australia and Antarctic. AGSO Journal of Australian Geology & Geophysics, 16, 2539.Google Scholar
Ding, P. & James, P. 1991. Structural evolution of the Bunger Hills area of East Antarctic. In Thomson, M.R.A., Crame, J.A. & Thomson, J.W., eds. Geological evolution of Antarctic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1318.Google Scholar
Droop, G.T.R. 1987. A general equation for estimating Fe3+ concentrations in ferromagnesian silicates and oxides from microprobe analyses, using stoichiometric criteria. Mineralogical magazine, 51, 431435.Google Scholar
Duebendorfer, E.M. 2002. Regional correlation of Mesoproterozoic structures and deformational events in the Albany–Fraser orogen, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 116, 129154.Google Scholar
Fitzsimons, I.C.W. 2000. Grenville-age basement provinces in East Antarctica: evidence for three separate collisional orogens. Geology, 28, 879882.Google Scholar
Fitzsimons, I.C.W. 2003. Proterozoic basement provinces of southern and southwestern Australia, and their correlation with Antarctic. Special Publication of the Geological Society of London, No. 206, 93130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, W.L., Powell, W.J., Pearson, N.J. & O’reilly, S.Y. 2008. GLITTER: data reduction software for laser ablation ICP–MS. In Sylvester, P., ed. Laser ablation ICP–MS in the earth sciences: current practices and outstanding issues. Vancouver: Mineralogical Association of Canada, 204207.Google Scholar
Harris, L.B. 1995. Correlations between the Albany, Fraser and Darling mobile belts of Western Australia and Mirnyy to Windmill Islands in the East Antarctic Shield: implications for Proterozoic Gondwanaland reconstructions. Memoirs - Geological Society of India, 4772.Google Scholar
Henry, J. 1974. Garnet-cordierite gneisses near the Egersund-Ogna anorthositic intrusion, southwestern Norway. Lithos, 7, 207216.Google Scholar
Holland, T.J.B. & Powell, R. 1998. An internally consistent thermodynamic data set for phases of petrological interest. Journal of metamorphic Geology, 16, 309343.Google Scholar
Holland, T.J.B. & Powell, R. 2011. An improved and extended internally consistent thermodynamic dataset for phases of petrological interest, involving a new equation of state for solids. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 29, 333383.Google Scholar
Howard, H.M., Smithies, R.H., Kirkland, C.L., Kelsey, D.E., Aitken, A., Wingate, M.T.D., De Gromard, R.Q., Spaggiari, C.V. & Maier, W.D. 2015. The burning heart – the proterozoic geology and geological evolution of the west Musgrave Region, Central Australia. Gondwana Research, 27, 6494. Erratum: Gondwana Research, 28, 1255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelsey, D.E. & Hand, M. 2015. On ultrahigh temperature crustal metamorphism: phase equilibria, trace element thermometry, bulk composition, heat sources, timescales and tectonic settings. Geoscience Frontiers, 6, 311356.Google Scholar
Kirkland, C.L., Smithies, R.H. & Spaggiari, C.V. 2015. Foreign contemporaries – unravelling disparate isotopic signatures from Mesoproterozoic Central and Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 265, 218231.Google Scholar
Kirkland, C.L., Smithies, R.H., Woodhouse, A.J., Howard, H.M., Wingate, M.T.D., Belousova, E.A., Cliff, J.B., Murphy, R.C. & Spaggiari, C.V. 2013. Constraints and deception in the isotopic record: the crustal evolution of the west Musgrave Province, central Australia. Gondwana Research, 23, 759781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkland, C.L., Spaggiari, C.V., Pawley, M.J., Wingate, M.T.D., Smithies, R.H., Howard, H.M., Tyler, I.M., Belousova, E.A. & Poujol, M. 2011. On the edge: U-Pb, Lu-Hf, and Sm-Nd data suggests reworking of the Yilgarn craton margin during formation of the Albany-Fraser Orogen. Precambrian Research, 187, 223247.Google Scholar
Korhonen, F.J., Saito, S., Brown, M. & Siddoway, C.S. 2010. Modeling multiple melt loss events in the evolution of an active continental margin. Lithos, 116, 230248.Google Scholar
Mohan, A. & Windley, B.F. 1993. Crustal trajectory of sapphirine-bearing granulites from Ganguvarpatti, South India: evidence for an isothermal decompression path. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 11, 867878.Google Scholar
Nandakumar, V. & Harley, S.L. 2000. A reappraisal of the pressure-temperature path of granulites from the Kerala Khondalite Belt. Journal of Geology, 108, 687703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, D.R., Myers, J.S. & Nutman, A.P. 1995. Chronology and evolution of the Middle Proterozoic Albany‐Fraser Orogen, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 42, 481495.Google Scholar
Nichols, G.T., Berry, R.F. & Green, D.H. 1992. Internally consistent gahnitic spinel-cordierite-garnet equilibria in the FMASHZn system – geothermobarometry and applications. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 111, 362377.Google Scholar
Payne, J.L., Hand, M., Barovich, K.M. & Wade, B.P. 2008. Temporal constraints on the timing of high-grade metamorphism in the northern Gawler Craton: implications for assembly of the Australian Proterozoic. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 55, 623640.Google Scholar
Pearce, M.A., White, A.J.R. & Gazley, M.F. 2015. TCInvestigator: automated calculation of mineral mode and composition contours for thermocalc pseudosections. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 33, 413425.Google Scholar
Post, N.J. 2000. Unravelling Gondwana fragments: an integrated structural, isotopic and petrographic investigation of the Windmill Islands, Antarctica. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 382 pp. [Unpublished].Google Scholar
Ravich, M.G.E., Klimov, L. & Solovʹev, D. 1968. The Pre-Cambrian of East Antarctica. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 475 pp.Google Scholar
Sheraton, J.W., Black, L.P. & Tindle, A.G. 1992. Petrogenesis of plutonic rocks in a Proterozoic granulite-facies terrane – the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica. Chemical Geology, 97, 163198.Google Scholar
Sheraton, J.W., Black, L.P., McCulloch, M.T. & Oliver, R.L. 1990. Age and origin of a compositionally varied mafic dyke swarm in the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica. Chemical Geology, 85, 215246.Google Scholar
Sheraton, J.W., Tingey, R.J., Black, L.P. & Oliver, R.L. 1993. Geology of the Bunger Hills area, Antarctica: implications for Gondwana correlations. Antarctica Science, 5, 85102.Google Scholar
Sheraton, J.W., Tingey, R.J., Oliver, R.L. & Black, L.P. 1995. Geology of the Bunger Hills-Denman Glacier region, East Antarctic. AGSO Bulletin, No. 244, 1136.Google Scholar
Smithies, R.H., Howard, H.M., Evins, P.M., Kirkland, C.L., Kelsey, D.E., Hand, M., Wingate, M.T.D., Collins, A.S. & Belousova, E. 2011. High-temperature granite magmatism, crust-mantle interaction and the Mesoproterozoic intracontinental evolution of the Musgrave Province, Central Australia. Journal of Petrology, 52, 931958.Google Scholar
Smithies, R.H., Kirkland, C.L., Korhonen, F.J., Aitken, A.R.A., Howard, H.M., Maier, W.D., Wingate, M.T.D., de Gromard, R.Q. & Gessner, K. 2015. The Mesoproterozoic thermal evolution of the Musgrave Province in central Australia – plume vs. the geological record. Gondwana Research, 27, 14191429.Google Scholar
Smits, R.G., Collins, W.J., Hand, M., Dutch, R. & Payne, J. 2014. A Proterozoic Wilson cycle identified by Hf isotopes in central Australia: implications for the assembly of Proterozoic Australia and Rodinia. Geology, 42, 231234.Google Scholar
Spaggiari, C.V. & Tyler, I.M. 2014. Albany-Fraser Orogen seismic and magnetotelluric (MT) workshop 2014: extended abstracts . Record 2014/6. East Perth: Geological Survey of Western Australia, 182 pp.Google Scholar
Spaggiari, C.V., Kirkland, C.L., Smithies, R.H., Wingate, M.T.D. & Belousova, E.A. 2015. Transformation of an Archean craton margin during Proterozoic basin formation and magmatism: the Albany–Fraser Orogen, Western Australia. Precambrian Research, 266, 440466.Google Scholar
Spear, F.S. 1991. On the interpretation of peak metamorphic temperatures in light of garnet diffusion during cooling. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 9, 379388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stüwe, K. & Powell, R. 1989. Metamorphic evolution of the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica: evidence for substantial post-metamorphic peak compression with minimal cooling in a Proterozoic orogenic event. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 7, 449464.Google Scholar
Stüwe, K. & Wilson, C.J.L. 1990. Interaction between deformation and charnockite emplacement in the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica. Journal of Structural Geology, 12, 767783.Google Scholar
Tajčmanová, L., Konopásek, J. & Košler, J. 2009. Distribution of zinc and its role in the stabilization of spinel in high-grade felsic rocks of the Moldanubian domain (Bohemian Massif). European Journal of Mineralogy, 21, 407418.Google Scholar
Tong, L.X., Liu, X.H., Wang, Y.B. & Liang, X.R. 2014. Metamorphic P-T paths of metapelitic granulites from the Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica. Lithos, 192, 102115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, N.M., Hand, M., Kelsey, D.E. & Dutch, R.A. 2015. A duality of timescales: short-lived ultrahigh temperature metamorphism preserving a long-lived monazite growth history in the Grenvillian Musgrave–Albany–Fraser Orogen. Precambrian Research, 264, 204234.Google Scholar
Walsh, A.K., Kelsey, D.E., Kirkland, C.L., Hand, M., Smithies, R.H., Clark, C. & Howard, H.M. 2015. P–T–t evolution of a large, long-lived, ultrahigh-temperature Grenvillian belt in central Australia. Gondwana Research, 28, 531564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, L.T., Gibson, G.M. & Lister, G.S. 2013. A reassessment of paleogeographic reconstructions of eastern Gondwana: bringing geology back into the equation. Gondwana Research, 24, 984998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, R.W., Powell, R., Holland, T.J.B., Johnson, T.E. & Green, E.C.R. 2014. New mineral activity–composition relations for thermodynamic calculations in metapelitic systems. Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 32, 261286.Google Scholar
Zhang, S.H., Zhao, Y., Liu, X.C., Liu, Y.S., Hou, K.J., Li, C.F. & Ye, H. 2012. U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of the bedrocks and moraine sediments from the Windmill Islands: implications for Proterozoic evolution of East Antarctica. Precambrian Research, 206, 5271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Tucker and Hand supplementary material

Figures S1-S3 and Table S1

Download Tucker and Hand supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 3.1 MB