Detrital apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He evidence for early formation and slow erosion of the Gamburtsev Mountains, East Antarctica

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: East Antarctica; Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains; Prydz Bay; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.539.851; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/ea/of2007-1047ea193.pdf

Summary The enigmatic Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in East Antarctica are important as the postulated source point for Eocene glaciation, but have not been sampled directly because they are covered by 0.6-4 km of ice. Topography and ice flow suggest that they shed terrigenous sediment to the Lambert Graben-Prydz Bay Basin. We measured (U-Th)/He ages of 110 to 316 Ma on detrital apatite grains and 197 to 397 Ma on detrital zircon grains (of pan-African (U-Th)/Pb age) from Prydz Bay cores. Hornblende and biotite 40Ar/39Ar ages from these samples cluster around 500 Ma, representing rapid exhumation following the pan-African high grade metamorphism represented in (U-Th)/Pb ages. Combined zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He cooling models require gradual, slow cooling since about 500 Ma with erosion rates of 0.03 km/Ma or less. Models that require rapid uplift and erosion or recent formation of the