HR: 14:40h
AN: V32F-05    [PDF]
TI: Continental Arc Magmatism and its Abrupt Termination by Ridge Subduction or Ridge Jump Along the Proto-Pacific Margin of Gondwana, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica: A Zircon U-Pb Study
AU: * Mukasa, S B
EM: mukasa@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan, 2534 C. C. Little Bldg Department of Geological Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1063
AB: The Paleozoic and Mesozoic development and subsequent fragmentation of Gondwanaland's Pacific margin is recorded in igneous and metamorphic rocks cropping out in the Marie Byrd Land (MBL) continental block of West Antarctica, recognized on geologic and paleomagnetic grounds to comprise a distinct microplate. Widespread occurrence of metaluminous granitoids dated by the zircon U-Pb method as mid- to late Paleozoic shows that convergence-related magmatism dominated the early evolution of this margin. Dates for granodiorites, monzogranites and granites from the Ruppert and Hobbs Coasts of western MBL reveal a prolonged period of subduction-related calc-alkaline magmatism between at least 320 ñ 3 Ma (age of the oldest granodiorite dated) and 110 ñ1 Ma (the age of the Mt. Prince granite). The latter is intruded by swarms of mafic and intermediate dikes believed to record the onset of rifting that led to separation of the New Zealand microcontinent from MBL. The dikes have been dated by zircon U-Pb at 101 ñ 1 Ma. Thus, the regime along the Ruppert and Hobbs Coasts had shifted from subduction-related to rift-related magmatism within a mere ~9-m.y. period. In the Kohler Range and the Pine Island Bay areas of eastern MBL, the calc-alkaline magmatism did not terminate until 96 ñ 1 Ma, based on U-Pb dating of zircons from one granitoid sample, or 94 ñ 3 Ma based on zircons from another. No continental separation occurred to the east of MBL. The margins of the Thurston Island and Antarctic Peninsula blocks went directly from convergent to inactive. With their zircon U-Pb ages clustering around 100 ñ 2 Ma, dike-free "anorogenic" syenites and quartz syenites along the Ruppert and Hobbs Coasts show that the transition to extensional magmatism was rapid in the west. This is also reflected by the fact that from the onset of rifting at 101 ñ 1 Ma to formation of oceanic crust between MBL and Greater New Zealand (Campbell Plateau, Chatham Rise, North Island and South Island) prior to chron 33o at ~81 Ma required only 20 m.y. For comparison, this is only two thirds of the ~30 m.y. it took for the Central Atlantic to open after initial rift-related magmatism. The swiftness of the separation between MBL and Greater New Zealand demonstrated by these data is consistent with ridge subduction or segmented ridge jumps being the primary cause of the break-up, as is the west to east diachroneity in the cessation of subduction.
DE: 1035 Geochronology
DE: 1040 Isotopic composition/chemistry
DE: 3640 Igneous petrology
DE: 3655 Major element composition
DE: 3670 Minor and trace element composition
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting