The WARS underwent a protracted Mesozoic/Cenozoic stage of diffuse extension across the broad ~.

• Main Author: Audrey D. Huerta
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Byrd; Byrd Glacier; East Antarctica; Transantarctic Mountains; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.547.8749; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/ea/of2007-1047ea091.pdf

Summary Recent geomorphic and thermochronologic studies in the Byrd drainage system present a paradoxical suite of data that are difficult to interpret under the current paradigm that the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) are a rift flank uplift that developed in the Eocene. Specifically, recent studies indicate 1) the Byrd outlet originated as an antecedent stream that flowed across the region prior to development of the TAM (Huerta & Reusch, 2005; Huerta, 2006; in revision), 2) the Byrd drainage system once flowed from West Antarctica to East Antarctica, opposite to the current drainage direction (Huerta & Reusch, 2005; Huerta, 2006), and 3) rapid cooling of the crust at ~120 Ma in the region of the Byrd glacier, (Huerta & Winberry, in review, Nature Geoscience). These data, however, are readily understood in the context of recent geodynamic studies that indicate that the West Antarctic region would have been a high-elevation plateau prior to the onset of extension at ~105 Ma, and that the Transantarctic Mountains may be the abandoned highland margin of the collapsed plateau (Huerta and Harry, 2007; Bialas, in press). This proposed tectonic evolution is consistent with the interpretation of Cretaceous erosion and crustal cooling during the growth of the high-elevation plateau and the development a major drainage system flowing from the West Antarctic highland to East Antarctica. These drainage systems were preserved as flow direction changed during