Eclogite at the Antarctic palaeo-Pacific active margin of Gondwana (Lanterman Range, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica)

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: Ricci, C.A., Talarico, F., Palmeri, R., Vincenzo, G. Di, Pertusati, P.C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1996
• Subjects: Geology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Oceanography; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Science; Antarctica; Victoria Land
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102096000399; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102096000399

Well-preserved eclogites were found for the first time in Antarctica, at the Lanterman Range, northern Victoria Land. They are part of a mafic–ultramafic belt that lies between the Wilson Terrane, representing part of the palaeo-Pacific margin of Gondwana, and the Bowers Terrane, a Cambro-Ordovician volcanic are and related sediments, accreted to the margin during the Ross Orogeny. The eclogites formed at temperatures in the range 750–850°C and pressures above 15 kbar and subsequently experienced a decompressional path to low pressure amphibolite facies conditions. The formation and exhumation of eclogites and the attainment of the metamorphic peak in adjacent rock units is consistent with a plate convergent setting model at the palaeo-Pacific margin of Gondwana.