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Antarctica and supercontinental evolution: clues and puzzles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2013

Ian W. D. Dalziel
Ian W. D. Dalziel*
Affiliation:
Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, J.J. Pickle Research Campus, Building 196 (ROC), 10100 Burnet Road (R2200), Austin, TX 78758-4445, USA
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Abstract

Antarctica has been known as the “keypiece” of the Gondwana supercontinent since publication of Du Toit's 1937 classic book Our Wandering Continents. It is also important to reconstruction of the early Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia. Laurentia, with its circumferential late Precambrian rifted margins, can be regarded as the ‘keypiece’ of Rodinia. The Southwest US–East Antarctica (SWEAT) hypothesis suggested former juxtaposition of the Pacific margins of Laurentia and East Antarctica. Several new lines of evidence support this hypothesis in a revised form, but must be reconciled with opening of the Pacific Ocean basin predating amalgamation, not only of Gondwana, but even of today's East Antarctic craton. The sequence of events is envisaged to have been: (1) formation prior to 1·6 Ga of a craton, including Laurentia and the Mawson craton, that extended from South Australia along the present Transantarctic margin to the Shackleton Range; (2) suturing of southernmost Laurentia to the Kalahari craton along the Grenville, Namaqua–Natal–Maud orogenic belt ca. 1·0 Ga; (3) rifting of the East Antarctic margin (Mawson craton) from western Laurentia ca. 0·7 Ga; (4) pan-African suturing of the Mawson craton to southernmost Laurentia as Gondwana amalgamated, forming the ephemeral Pannotia supercontinent; and (5) end-Precambrian separation of Laurentia as Iapetus opened.

Keywords

continental driftGondwanaPannotiaRodinia
Type
Articles
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 104 , Issue 1: Antarctic Earth Sciences: ISAES XI Plenary Volume , March 2013 , pp. 3 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2013 

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