Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:16:37.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Very low- and low-grade metamorphism in the Trinity Peninsula Group (Permo-Triassic) of northern Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

J. L. Smellie ,
B. Roberts  and
S. R. Hirons
J. L. Smellie
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
B. Roberts
Affiliation:
Geology Department, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
S. R. Hirons
Affiliation:
Geology Department, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Permo-Triassic Trinity Peninsula Group is a widespread, regionally metamorphosed metasedimentary sequence in northern Graham Land, Antarctica, which forms the local ‘basement’ to the mainly Jurassic–Cretaceous Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc. The metamorphic grade, thermal evolution and pressure series of this major tectono-stratigraphical unit are largely unknown. Determining the nature of the metamorphism has relied hitherto on conventional optical identifications of the major phases, mainly in rare volcanic beds. However, diagnostic mineral parageneses are generally absent and the precise metamorphic grade is unknown or has to be inferred over large areas. Using white mica (illite) crystallinity of interbedded mudrocks, the Trinity Peninsula Group is now shown to have been pervasively altered mainly at anchizonal and epizonal grades. Conditions ranged from upper anchizonal in the northeast to thoroughly epizonal in the southwest. Outwith thermal aureoles near plutonic intrusions, the alteration temperatures ranged mainly from 250 to 325 °C, exceeding 300 °C in the highest-grade (epizone/greenschist facies) parts of the sequence. The facies series, K-white mica b cell dimension measurements and mineral phases present are characteristic of an intermediate pressure series altered under moderate geothermal gradients (<35 °C/km), corresponding to burial depths of c. 7–10 km. Unroofing and substantial erosion of the Trinity Peninsula Group took place during polyphasal vertical tectonic movements linked to the development of the magmatic arc in northern Graham Land. The geological setting of the Trinity Peninsula Group is ambiguous and could have been a foreland (or back-arc) basin or the mid- to upper levels of an accretionary prism.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 133 , Issue 5 , September 1996 , pp. 583 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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

Aguirre, L., Levi, B., & Nystrom, J. O. 1989. The link between metamorphism, volcanism and geotectonic setting during the evolution of the Andes. In Evolution of Metamorphic Belts (eds Daly, J. S., Cliff, R. A., and Yardley, B. W. D.), pp. 223–32. Geological Society, London, Special Publication no. 43.Google Scholar
Aitkenhead, N. 1975. The geology of the Duse Bay-Larsen Inlet area, north-east Graham Land (with particular reference to the Trinity Peninsula Series). British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports 51, 1–62.Google Scholar
Alarcón, B., Ambrus, J., Olcay, L., & Vieira, C. 1976. Geologia del Estrecho de Gerlache entre los parallelos 64 y 65 lat. sur, Antártica chilena. Serie Cientifica del Instituto Antártico Chileno 4, 7–51.Google Scholar
Anderson, R. N. 1980. update of heat flow in the east and southeast Asian seas. In The Tectonic and Geologic Evolution of Southeast Asian Seas and Islands (ed. Hayes, D. E.), pp. 319–26. Washington: American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph no. 23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arche, A., López-Martínez, J., & Marfil, R. 1992. Petrofacies and provenance of the oldest rocks in Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands. In Geologia de la Antártida Occidental (ed. López-Martínez, J.), pp. 93–104. Madrid: La Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología.Google Scholar
Árkai, P. 1991. Chlorite crystallinity: an empirical approach and correlation with illite crystallinity, coal rank and mineral facies as exemplified by Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks of northeast Hungary. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 9, 723–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevins, R. E., & Robinson, D. 1988. Low grade metamorphism of the Welsh Basin Lower Palaeozoic succession: an example of diastathermal metamorphism. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 363–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevins, R. E., Robinson, D., Gayer, R. A., & Allman, S. 1986. Low-grade metamorphism and its relationship to thrust tectonics in the Caledonides of Finnmark, North Norway. Norges geologiske undersfikelse 404, 31–42.Google Scholar
Birkenmajer, K. 1992. Trinity Peninsula Group (Permo- Triassic?) at Paradise Harbour, Antarctic Peninsula. Studia Geologica Polonica 101, 7–25.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. G. 1972. Progressive metamorphism from prehnite-pumpellyite to greenschist-facies in the Dansey Pass area, Otago, New Zealand. Geological Society of America Bulletin 83, 3177–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browne, J. R., & Pirrie, D. 1995. Sediment dispersal patterns in a deep marine back-arc basin: evidence from heavy mineral provenance studies. In Characterization of Deep Marine Clastic Systems (eds Hartley, A. J., and Prosser, D. J.), pp. 137–54. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 94.Google Scholar
Bucher, K., & Frey, M. 1994. Petrogenesis of metamorphic rocks. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 318 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalziel, I. W. D. 1984. Tectonic evolution of a forearc terrane, southern Scotia Ridge, Antarctica. Special Paper of the Geological Society of America 200, 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliot, D. H. 1965. Geology of north-west Trinity Peninsula, Graham Land. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin 7, 1–24.Google Scholar
Elliot, D. H. 1966. Geology of the Nordenskjöld Coast and a comparison with north-west Trinity Peninsula, Graham Land. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin 10, 1–43.Google Scholar
Elliot, D. H., & Trautman, T. A. 1982. Lower Tertiary strata on Seymour Island, Antarctic Peninsula. In Antarctic Geoscience (ed. Craddock, C.), pp. 287–97. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Ernst, W. G. 1971. Petrologic reconnaissance of Franciscan metagraywackes from the Diablo Range, central California Coast Ranges. Journal of Petrology 12, 413–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, W. G. 1975. Subduction zone metamorphism. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross Inc., 445 pp.Google Scholar
Farquharson, G. W. 1984. Late Mesozoic, non-marine conglomeratic sequences of northern Antarctic Peninsula (The Botany Bay Group). British Antarctic Survey Bulletin 65, 1–32.Google Scholar
Fisher, A. T., & Hounslow, M. W. 1990. Heat flow through the toe of the Barbados accretionary complex. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results 110, 345–63.Google Scholar
Fleet, M. 1968. The geology of the Oscar II Coast, Graham Land. British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports 59, 1–46.Google Scholar
Fleming, E. A., & Thomson, J. W., compilers., 1979. Sheet 2. Northern Graham Land and South Shetland Islands. 1:500 000 BAS 500G series. Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey.Google Scholar
Guidotti, C. V., & Sassi, F. P. 1986. Classification and correlation of metamorphic facies series by means of muscovite bo data from low-grade metapelites. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie 153, 363–80.Google Scholar
Hyden, G., & Tanner, P. G. W. 1981. Late Palaeozoic-early Mesozoic fore-arc basin sedimentary rocks at the Pacific margin in western Antarctica. Geologische Rundschau 70, 529–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ineson, J. R. 1985. Submarine glide blocks from the Lower Cretaceous of the Antarctic Peninsula. Sedimentology 32, 659–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelm, U., & Herve, F. 1994. Illite crystallinity of metapelites from the Trinity Peninsula Group, Lesser Antarctica: some implications for provenance and metamorphism. Serie Cientifica Instituto Antdrtico Chileno 44, 9–16.Google Scholar
Kemp, A. E. S., Oliver, G. J. H., & Baldwin, J. R. 1985. Lowgrade metamorphism and accretion tectonics: Southern Uplands terrain, Scotland. Mineralogical Magazine 49, 335–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, E. C., & Barker, P. F. 1988. The margins of the South Orkney microcontinent. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 317–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, H. J. 1980. Incipient metamorphism of Cambro-Silurian clastic rocks from the Jamtland Supergroup, central Scandinavian Caledonides, western Sweden: illite crystallinity and “vitrinite” reflectance. Journal of the Geological Society, London 137, 271–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, H. J. 1983. Mineralogy and petrology of burial diagenesis (burial metamorphism) and incipient metamorphism in clastic rocks. In Diagenesis in Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, 2 (ed s Larsen, G., and Chilingar, G. V.), pp. 289–93. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Kisch, H. J. 1991. Illite crystallinity: recommendations on sample preparation, X-ray diffraction settings and interlaboratory standards. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 9, 665–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kneller, B. C. 1991. A foreland basin on the southern margin of lapetus. Journal of the Geological Society, London 148, 207–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kokelaar, B. P., Howell, M. F., Bevins, R. E., Roach, R. A., & Dunkley, P. N. 1984. The Ordovician marginal basin of Wales. In Marginal Basin Geology: Volcanic and Associated Sedimentary and Tectonic Processes in Modern and Ancient Marginal Basins (eds Kokelaar, B. P., and Howells, M. F.), pp. 245–69. Geological Society, London, Special Publication no. 16.Google Scholar
Krumm, S., & Buggisch, W. 1991. Sample preparation effects on illite crystallinity measurement: grain-size gradation and particle orientation. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 9, 671–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubler, B. 1968. Evaluation quantitative du metamorphisme par la crystallinity de 1’ illite. Bulletin-Centre de Recherches Paris-SNFA 2, 385–97.Google Scholar
Leggett, J. K., Mckerrow, W. S., & Eales, M. H. 1979. The Southern Uplands of Scotland: a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary prism. Journal of the Geological Society, London 136, 755–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, G., Peacor, D. R., Merriman, R. J., & Roberts, B. 1994. The diagenetic to low-grade metamorphic evolution of matrix white micas in the system muscovite paragonite in a mudrock from central Wales, U.K. Clays and Clay Minerals 42, 369–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linton, D. L. 1964. Landscape evolution. In Antarctic Research (eds Priestley, R., Adie, R. J., and de Robin, G. Q.), pp. 85–99. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Macdonald, D. I. M., & Butterworth, P. J. 1990. The stratigraphy, setting and hydrocarbon potential of the Mesozoic sedimentary basins of the Antarctic Peninsula. In Antarctica as an Exploration Frontier (ed. B. St. John, ), pp. 101–25. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Studies in Geology no. 31.Google Scholar
Merriman, R. J., Rex, D. C., Soper, N. J., & Peacor, D. R. 1995a. The age of Acadian cleavage in northern England, UK: K—Ar and TEM analysis of a Silurian metabentonite. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 50, 255–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriman, R. J., & Roberts, B. 1995. Low-grade metamorphism of the Lower Palaeozoic sequence. In Geology of the Rhins of Galloway district (ed. P., Stone), pp. 67–70. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, sheets 1 and 3 (Scotland).Google Scholar
Merriman, R. J., Roberts, B., & Peacor, D. R. 1990. A transmission electron microscope study of white mica crystallite size distribution in a mudstone to slate transitional sequence, North Wales, U.K. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 106, 21–40.Google Scholar
Merriman, R. J., Roberts, B., Peacor, D. R., & Hirons, S. R. 1995. Strain-related differences in the crystal growth of white mica and chlorite: a TEM and XRD study of the development of metapelitic microfabrics in the Southern Uplands thrust terrane, Scotland. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 13, 559–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyashiro, A. 1975. Metamorphism and metamorphic belts. London: George Allen Unwin Ltd, 492 pp.Google Scholar
Norris, R. J., & Bishop, D. G. 1990. Deformed conglomerates and textural zones in the Otago Schists, South Island, New Zealand. Tectonophysics 174, 331–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, G. J. H., Smellie, J. L., Thomas, L. J., Casey, D. M., Kemp, A., Evans, L. J., Baldwin, J. R., & Hepworth, B. C., 1984. Early Palaeozoic metamorphic history of the Midland Valley, Southern Uplands-Longford Down Massif and the Lake District, British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 75, 245–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pirrie, D. 1991. Controls on the petrographic evolution of an active margin sedimentary sequence: the Larsen Basin, Antarctica. In Developments in Sedimentary Provenance Studies (eds. Morton, A. C., Todd, S. P., and Haughton, P. D. W.), pp. 231–49. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 57.Google Scholar
Pirrie, D., & Crame, J. A. 1995. Late Jurassic palaeogeography and anaerobic-dysaerobic sedimentation in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region. Journal of the Geological Society, London 152, 469–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pouclet, A., Lee, J-S., Vidal, P., Cousens, B., & Bellon, H. 1995. Cretaceous to Cenozoic volcanism in South Korea and in the Sea of Japan: magmatic constraints on the opening of the back-arc basin. In Volcanism Associated with Extension at Consuming Plate Margins (ed. Smellie, J. L.), pp. 169–91. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 81.Google Scholar
Rees, P. M. 1993. Revised interpretations of Mesozoic palaeogeography and volcanic arc evolution in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region. Antarctic Science 5, 77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, A. H. N., Bevins, R. E., Robinson, D., & Roberts, D. 1989. Evolution of low-grade metamorphic zones in the Caledonides of Finnmark, N Norway. In The Caledonide Geology of Scandinavia (ed. Gayer, R. A.), pp. 177–91. London: Graham and Trotman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B., Merriman, R. J., Hirons, S. R., Fletcher, C. J., & Wilson, D. 1996. Synchronous very low grade metamorphism, contraction and inversion in the central part of the Welsh Lower Palaeozoic Basin. Journal of the Geological Society, London 153, 277–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B., Merriman, R. J., & Pratt, W. 1991. The influence of strain, lithology and stratigraphical depth on white mica (illite) crystallinity in mudrocks from the vicinity of the Corns Slate Belt, Wales: implications for the timing of metamorphism in the Welsh Basin. Geological Magazine 128, 633–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D., & Bevins, R. E. 1986. Incipient metamorphism in the Lower Palaeozoic marginal basin of Wales. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 4, 101–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D., Warr, L. N., & Bevins, R. E. 1990. The Illite “crystallinity” technique: a critical appraisal of its precision. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 8, 333–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassi, F. P., & Scolari, A. 1974. The bo value of the potassic white micas as a barometric indicator in low-grade metamorphism of pelitic schists. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 45, 143–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smellie, J. L. 1981. A complete arc-trench system recognized in Gondwana sequences of the Antarctic Peninsula region. Geological Magazine 118, 139–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smellie, J. L. 1987. Sandstone detrital modes and basinal setting of the Trinity Peninsula Group, northern Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula: a preliminary survey. In Gondwana Six: Structure, Tectonics, and Geophysics (ed. Mackenzie, G. D.), pp. 199–207. Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, Geophysical Monograph no. 40.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L. 1991. Stratigraphy, provenance and tectonic setting of (?)Late Palaeozoic-Triassic sedimentary sequences in northern Graham Land and South Scotia Ridge. In Geological Evolution of Antarctica (eds Thomson, M. R. A., Crame, J. A., and Thomson, J. W.), pp. 411–17. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L., Griffiths, C. J., & Pankhurst, R. J. 1994. Antarctic Peninsula Volcanic Group. In Geological Map of Adelaide Island to Foyn Coast (Moyes, A. B. Willan, C. F. H., Thomson, J. W. et al), pp. 19–24. BAS Geomap Series, Sheet 3, 1:250 000, with supplementary text. Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey.Google Scholar
Smellie, J. L., & Millar, I. L. 1995. New K—Ar isotopic ages of schists from Nordenskjold Coast, Antarctic Peninsula: oldest part of the Trinity Peninsula Group. Antarctic Science 7, 191–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, P., Floyd, J. D., Barnes, R. P., & Lintern, B. C. 1987. A sequential back-arc and foreland thrust duplex model for the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 144, 753–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storey, B. C., & Garrett, S. W. 1985. Crustal growth in the Antarctic Peninsula by accretion, magmatism and extension. Geological Magazine 122, 5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storey, B. C., & Nell, P. A. R. 1988. Role of strike-slip faulting in the tectonic evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 333–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamaki, K., Pisciotto, K., Allan, J., et al. 1990. Background, objectives, and principal results, ODP Leg 127, Japan Sea. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Results 127, 5–33.Google Scholar
Thosman, M. R. A. 1975. New palaeontological and lithological observations on the Legoupil Formation, northwest Antarctic Peninsula. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin 41 /42, 169–85.Google Scholar
Warr, L. N., & Rice, A. H. N. 1994. Interlaboratory standardisation and calibration of clay mineral crystallinity and crystallite size data. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 12, 141–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, T, Langseth, M. G., & Anderson, R. N. 1977. Heat flow in back-arc basins of the western Pacific. In Island Arcs, Deep Sea Trenches and Back-Arc Basins (eds Talwani, M., and Pitman, W. C.), pp. 137–61. Washington: American Geophysical Union, Maurice Ewing Series 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitham, A. G., & Marshall, J. E. A. 1988. Syn-depositional deformation in a Cretaceous succession, James Ross Island, Antarctica. Evidence from vitrinite reflectivity. Geological Magazine 125, 583–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitham, A. G., & Storey, B. C. 1989. Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous strike-slip deformation in the Nordenskjold Formation of Graham Land. Antarctic Science 1, 269–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamano, M., Uyeda, S., Aoki, Y., & Shipley, T. H. 1982. Estimates of heat flow derived from gas hydrates. Geology 10, 339–43.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar