EARLY CRETACEOUS UPLIFT OF THE SOUTHERN SENTINEL RANGE, ELLSWORTH MOUNTAINS, WEST ANTARCTICA

• Main Authors: P G Fitzgerald, E Stump
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ellsworth Mountains; Heritage Range; Sentinel Range; Weddell; Weddell Sea; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1086.8016; http://su-thermochronology.syr.edu/Research_pdfs/Fitzgerald%20and%20Stump%201992%20ISAES%20EWM.pdf

Abstract: Apatite fission track analysis of a 4.2 km vertical profile of samples collected from the western flank of the southern Sentinel Range indicates unroofing (uplift and erosion) in excess of 4 km between -140 and 117 Ma following the initial separation of East and West Gondwana and accompanying the opening of the Weddell Sea. A single apatite age (169 ± 17 Ma) from the Heritage Range indicates less uplift there during the Early Cretaceous, but suggests that Early Cretaceous uplift was initiated between -145 and -169 Ma. The amount of uplift and denudation in the southern Sentinel Range since the Early Cretaceous is unlikely to have been more than 3 km and was probably much less. At least 1.8 km of relief has persisted there since the Early Cretaceous.