Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow
Cenozoic opening of the central Scotia Sea involved the tectonic translation of crustal blocks to form the North Scotia Ridge, which today is a major topographic constriction to the flow of the deep Antarctic Circumpolar Current that keeps Antarctica thermally isolated from warmer ocean waters. How...
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ftucl:oai:eprints.ucl.ac.uk.OAI2:1433142 2023-05-15T13:45:37+02:00 Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow Carter, A Curtis, M Schwanethal, J 2014-04 http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1433142/ unknown Geology , 42 (4) 299 - 302. (2014) Article 2014 ftucl 2015-04-09T22:14:39Z Cenozoic opening of the central Scotia Sea involved the tectonic translation of crustal blocks to form the North Scotia Ridge, which today is a major topographic constriction to the flow of the deep Antarctic Circumpolar Current that keeps Antarctica thermally isolated from warmer ocean waters. How this ridge developed and whether it was a topographic barrier in the past are unknown. To address this we investigated the Cenozoic history of the South Georgia microcontinental block, the exposed part of the ridge. Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data confirm that the Cretaceous succession of turbidites exposed on South Georgia was stratigraphically connected to the Rocas Verdes backarc basin, part of the South America plate. Apatite thermochronometry results show that South Georgia had remained connected to South America until ca. 45-40 Ma; both record a distinct rapid cooling event at that time. Subsequent separation from South America was accompanied by kilometer-scale reburial until inversion ca. 10 Ma, coeval with the cessation of spreading at the West Scotia Ridge and collision between the South Georgia block and the Northeast Georgia Rise. Our results show that the South Georgia microcontinental block could not have been an emergent feature from ca. 40 Ma until 10 Ma. © 2014 Geological Society of America. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Scotia Sea University College London: UCL Discovery Antarctic Georgia Rise ENVELOPE(-32.500,-32.500,-52.500,-52.500) North Scotia Ridge ENVELOPE(-51.431,-51.431,-53.581,-53.581) Northeast Georgia Rise ENVELOPE(-32.500,-32.500,-52.500,-52.500) Pacific Rocas ENVELOPE(-56.948,-56.948,-63.398,-63.398) Scotia Sea West Scotia Ridge ENVELOPE(-56.500,-56.500,-56.833,-56.833) |
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University College London: UCL Discovery |
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Cenozoic opening of the central Scotia Sea involved the tectonic translation of crustal blocks to form the North Scotia Ridge, which today is a major topographic constriction to the flow of the deep Antarctic Circumpolar Current that keeps Antarctica thermally isolated from warmer ocean waters. How this ridge developed and whether it was a topographic barrier in the past are unknown. To address this we investigated the Cenozoic history of the South Georgia microcontinental block, the exposed part of the ridge. Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data confirm that the Cretaceous succession of turbidites exposed on South Georgia was stratigraphically connected to the Rocas Verdes backarc basin, part of the South America plate. Apatite thermochronometry results show that South Georgia had remained connected to South America until ca. 45-40 Ma; both record a distinct rapid cooling event at that time. Subsequent separation from South America was accompanied by kilometer-scale reburial until inversion ca. 10 Ma, coeval with the cessation of spreading at the West Scotia Ridge and collision between the South Georgia block and the Northeast Georgia Rise. Our results show that the South Georgia microcontinental block could not have been an emergent feature from ca. 40 Ma until 10 Ma. © 2014 Geological Society of America. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Carter, A Curtis, M Schwanethal, J |
spellingShingle |
Carter, A Curtis, M Schwanethal, J Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
author_facet |
Carter, A Curtis, M Schwanethal, J |
author_sort |
Carter, A |
title |
Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
title_short |
Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
title_full |
Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
title_fullStr |
Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cenozoic tectonic history of the South Georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to Pacific-Atlantic through flow |
title_sort |
cenozoic tectonic history of the south georgia microcontinent and potential as a barrier to pacific-atlantic through flow |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1433142/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-32.500,-32.500,-52.500,-52.500) ENVELOPE(-51.431,-51.431,-53.581,-53.581) ENVELOPE(-32.500,-32.500,-52.500,-52.500) ENVELOPE(-56.948,-56.948,-63.398,-63.398) ENVELOPE(-56.500,-56.500,-56.833,-56.833) |
geographic |
Antarctic Georgia Rise North Scotia Ridge Northeast Georgia Rise Pacific Rocas Scotia Sea West Scotia Ridge |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Georgia Rise North Scotia Ridge Northeast Georgia Rise Pacific Rocas Scotia Sea West Scotia Ridge |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Scotia Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Scotia Sea |
op_source |
Geology , 42 (4) 299 - 302. (2014) |
_version_ |
1766228644226662400 |