Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape
East Antarctica remains one of the few continental regions on Earth where an understanding of the origin and causal processes responsible for topographic relief is largely missing. Low‐temperature thermochronology studies of exposed Precambrian basement revealed discrete episodes of cooling and denu...
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Amer Geophysical Union
2020
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ftunivtasmania:oai:eprints.utas.edu.au:35159 2023-05-15T13:42:39+02:00 Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape Maritati, A Danisik, M Halpin, JA Whittaker, JM Aitken, ARA 2020 application/pdf https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/1/140999%20-%20Pangea%20rifting%20shaped%20the%20East%20Antarctic%20landscape.pdf en eng Amer Geophysical Union https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/1/140999%20-%20Pangea%20rifting%20shaped%20the%20East%20Antarctic%20landscape.pdf Maritati, A orcid:0000-0003-0587-8237 , Danisik, M, Halpin, JA orcid:0000-0002-4992-8681 , Whittaker, JM orcid:0000-0002-3170-3935 and Aitken, ARA 2020 , 'Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape' , Tectonics, vol. 39, no. 8 , pp. 1-15 , doi:10.1029/2020TC006180 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020TC006180>. East Antarctica topography thermochronology Article PeerReviewed 2020 ftunivtasmania https://doi.org/10.1029/2020TC006180 2021-10-04T22:19:08Z East Antarctica remains one of the few continental regions on Earth where an understanding of the origin and causal processes responsible for topographic relief is largely missing. Low‐temperature thermochronology studies of exposed Precambrian basement revealed discrete episodes of cooling and denudation during the Paleozoic-Mesozoic; however, the significance of these thermal events and their relationship to topography across the continental interior remains unclear. Here we use zircon and apatite (U‐Th)/He thermochronology to resolve the low‐temperature thermal evolution of a poorly exposed section of East Antarctic basement in the Bunger Hills region and gain insights into the chronology and style of landscape evolution across East Antarctica. Thermal history modeling results indicate that Precambrian basement in the Bunger Hills region experienced a distinct cooling episode during the Late Paleozoic-Triassic, which we relate to ~2-4 km of regional exhumation associated with intracontinental rifting, followed by a second episode of localized cooling and ≤1 km exhumation during the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous separation of India from East Gondwana. These findings, combined with existing thermochronological and tectonic evidence, support a continent‐scale denudation event associated with uplift and exhumation of large sections of Precambrian basement during Late Paleozoic-Triassic Pangea‐wide intracontinental extension. By contrast, continental extension associated with the Jurassic-Cretaceous breakup of East Gondwana resulted in significant denudation only locally in regions west of the Bunger Hills. We propose that the combined effects of these Paleozoic-Mesozoic tectonic events had a profound impact on the topography across the East Antarctic interior and influenced the long‐term landscape evolution of East Antarctica. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints Antarctic Bunger Hills ENVELOPE(100.883,100.883,-66.167,-66.167) East Antarctica Tectonics 39 8 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tasmania: UTas ePrints |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasmania |
language |
English |
topic |
East Antarctica topography thermochronology |
spellingShingle |
East Antarctica topography thermochronology Maritati, A Danisik, M Halpin, JA Whittaker, JM Aitken, ARA Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
topic_facet |
East Antarctica topography thermochronology |
description |
East Antarctica remains one of the few continental regions on Earth where an understanding of the origin and causal processes responsible for topographic relief is largely missing. Low‐temperature thermochronology studies of exposed Precambrian basement revealed discrete episodes of cooling and denudation during the Paleozoic-Mesozoic; however, the significance of these thermal events and their relationship to topography across the continental interior remains unclear. Here we use zircon and apatite (U‐Th)/He thermochronology to resolve the low‐temperature thermal evolution of a poorly exposed section of East Antarctic basement in the Bunger Hills region and gain insights into the chronology and style of landscape evolution across East Antarctica. Thermal history modeling results indicate that Precambrian basement in the Bunger Hills region experienced a distinct cooling episode during the Late Paleozoic-Triassic, which we relate to ~2-4 km of regional exhumation associated with intracontinental rifting, followed by a second episode of localized cooling and ≤1 km exhumation during the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous separation of India from East Gondwana. These findings, combined with existing thermochronological and tectonic evidence, support a continent‐scale denudation event associated with uplift and exhumation of large sections of Precambrian basement during Late Paleozoic-Triassic Pangea‐wide intracontinental extension. By contrast, continental extension associated with the Jurassic-Cretaceous breakup of East Gondwana resulted in significant denudation only locally in regions west of the Bunger Hills. We propose that the combined effects of these Paleozoic-Mesozoic tectonic events had a profound impact on the topography across the East Antarctic interior and influenced the long‐term landscape evolution of East Antarctica. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Maritati, A Danisik, M Halpin, JA Whittaker, JM Aitken, ARA |
author_facet |
Maritati, A Danisik, M Halpin, JA Whittaker, JM Aitken, ARA |
author_sort |
Maritati, A |
title |
Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
title_short |
Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
title_full |
Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
title_fullStr |
Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape |
title_sort |
pangea rifting shaped the east antarctic landscape |
publisher |
Amer Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/ https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/1/140999%20-%20Pangea%20rifting%20shaped%20the%20East%20Antarctic%20landscape.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(100.883,100.883,-66.167,-66.167) |
geographic |
Antarctic Bunger Hills East Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Bunger Hills East Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/35159/1/140999%20-%20Pangea%20rifting%20shaped%20the%20East%20Antarctic%20landscape.pdf Maritati, A orcid:0000-0003-0587-8237 , Danisik, M, Halpin, JA orcid:0000-0002-4992-8681 , Whittaker, JM orcid:0000-0002-3170-3935 and Aitken, ARA 2020 , 'Pangea rifting shaped the East Antarctic landscape' , Tectonics, vol. 39, no. 8 , pp. 1-15 , doi:10.1029/2020TC006180 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020TC006180>. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020TC006180 |
container_title |
Tectonics |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
8 |
_version_ |
1766170481850843136 |