ALBERT

Beschreibung: The Dronning Maud Land Mountains in East Antarctica form a key area for the better understanding of the geodynamic evolution of East Antarctica. Specifically, the integration of geophysics with geology and geochronology reveals the complex tectonic history of East Antarctica and its significance for Rodinia and Gondwana reconstructions. The international GEA-expeditions (2010-12) revealed three major tectonic provinces: a westernmost part with Kalahari (Africa) affinities and an easternmost part from about 35E with Indo-Antarctic affinities sandwiched in between these two blocks, is an extensive region with juvenile Neoproterozoic crust (ca. 990-900 Ma), the Tonian Oceanic Arc Super Terrane (TOAST) that shows very limited signs of a pre-Neoproterozoic history. We have tested the spatial extent of the TOAST by a regional moraine study that confirm the lack of older material inland, though latest Mesoproterozoic juvenile rocks frequently do occur in the glacial drift and probably record a slightly earlier precursor of the TOAST inland. The TOAST records 150 Ma of almost continuous tectono-metamorphic reworking at medium- to high-grade metamorphic conditions between ca. 650 to 500 Ma. This long-lasting overprinting history is thought to record protracted accretion of ocean island arc terranes and the final amalgamation of East Antarctica along the major East African-Antarctic Orogen. There is no sign of significant metamorphic overprint immediately after the formation of TOAST. Therefore, these island arcs may have formed independent of, or peripheral to Rodinia, and may reveal major accretionary tectonics outboard of Rodinia.

Beschreibung: The Sør Rondane Mountains (SRM) in eastern Dronning Maud Land (DML) are located in an area, where two apparent Pan-African (650–520 Ma) orogenic mobile belts appear to intersect, the East African-Antarctic Orogen and the Kuunga Orogen. Hence, a better understanding of the tectonic structure of the Sør Rondane region is an important key for unravelling the complex geodynamic evolution of the eastern DML and adjacent regions of East Antarctica during the Late Neoproterozoic/Early Palaeozoic amalgamation of Gondwana. The SRM were recently (2011–2012) aerogeophysically investigated with a 5 km flight line spacing, covering a total area of ∼140,000 km2. The aeromagnetic data are correlated with ground-based magnetic susceptibility measurements and geological field data and allow to project tectonic terranes and individual structures into ice-covered areas. Magnetic anomalies and basement foliation trends are collinear in areas dominated by simple shear deformation, whereas an area of large-scale refolding correlates with a subdued small-scale broken magnetic anomaly pattern. The latter area can be regarded as a distinct tectonic domain, the central Sør Rondane corridor. It magnetically separates the SRM into an eastern, a central, and a western portion. This subdivision is presumably related to late Pan-African extensional tectonics and suggests that such a tectonic regime may play a larger role than previously assumed. Voluminous late Pan-African granitoids, which are mainly undeformed, correlate with positive magnetic anomalies between +30 and +80 nT, while a strong magnetic high (+680 nT) near the granitic intrusion at Dufekfjellet is caused by a highly magnetised enigmatic body. The recently discovered prominent magnetic anomaly province of southeastern DML continues into the southern part of the Sør Rondane region, where only a few outcrops are exposed. Findings at these westernmost nunataks of the SRM indicate that the subdued magnetic anomaly pattern of this southeastern DML province is most likely caused by the predominance of metasedimentary rocks of yet unknown age.

Beschreibung: A compilation of several aeromagnetic surveys across North Greenland and the Fram Strait area is presented. Across North Greenland the data are related to the known onshore geology. The correlation between the geological structure and large-scale magnetic anomalies is excellent. Along the North Greenland coast the data indicate that the Late Mesozoic Kap Washington volcanics might have a larger areal extent than known from onshore geological mapping. The submarine Morris Jesup Rise is characterized by strong positive magnetic anomalies, and the anomalies across the plateau indicate the presence of distinct volcanic centres. This massive magmatism have occurred latest in conjunction with the Oligocene initial stages of plate divergence between Svalbard and North Greenland that led to the development of Fram Strait. Both plateaux, the Morris Jesup Rise and the Yermak Plateau, are interpreted to be of continental origin and, in the initial rift stage of the Eurasia Basin around 56 Ma, to have been contiguous with the Lomonosov Ridge. More towards the east in the Fram Strait interpretations of seismic and bathymetric data indicate the presence of an active segment of mid-ocean ridge, the Lena Trough. This approximately 280 km long segment terminates in the south at the NW-SE striking Spitsbergen Fracture Zone, while in the north it bends to connect with the Gakkel Ridge. A shallow water pathway along the line of the trough might have existed between those times and ~21 Ma, above the propagating rift system in the north and, further south, over extending and subsiding continental crust of the Svalbard and North East Greenland margins. Magnetic anomaly identifications indicate that the Lena Trough has remained an ultraslow spreading system or possibly even all, of the magnetic lineations may be signals of serpentinized exhumed mantle rocks rather than of basaltic crust.

Beschreibung: The Antarctic geomagnetics' community remains very active in crustal anomaly mapping. More than 1.5 million line-km of new air- and shipborne data have been acquired over the past decade by the international community in Antarctica. These new data together with surveys that previously were not in the public domain significantly upgrade the ADMAP compilation. Aeromagnetic flights over East Antarctica have been concentrated in the TransantarcticMountains, the Prince CharlesMountains – Lambert Glacier area, and western Dronning Maud Land (DML)—Coats Land. Additionally, surveys were conducted over Lake Vostok and the western part of Marie Byrd Land by the US Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research projects and over theAmundsen Sea Embayment during the austral summer of 2004/2005 by a collaborative US/UK aerogeophysical campaign. New aeromagnetic data over the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (120,000 line-km), acquired within the IPY Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province project reveal fundamental geologic features beneath the East Antarctic Ice sheet critical to understanding Precambrian continental growth processes. Roughly 100,000 line-km of magnetic data obtained within the International Collaboration for Exploration of the Cryosphere through Aerogeophysical Profiling promises to shed light on subglacial lithology and identify crustal boundaries for the central Antarctic Plate. Since the 1996/97 season, the Alfred Wegener Institute has collected 90,000 km of aeromagnetic data along a 1200 km long segment of the East Antarctic coast over western DML. Recent cruises by Australian, German, Japanese, Russian, British, and American researchers have contributed to long-standing studies of the Antarctic continental margin. Along the continental margin of East Antarcticawest ofMaud Rise to the George V Coast of Victoria Land, the Russian Polar Marine Geological Research Expedition and Geoscience Australia obtained 80,000 and 20,000 line-km, respectively, of integrated seismic, gravity and magnetic data. Additionally, US expeditions collected 128,000 line-km of shipborne magnetic data in the Ross Sea sector.

Beschreibung: The Sor Rondane Mountains (SRM) in eastern Dronning Maud land (DML) are located in an area, where two apparent Pan-African (650-520 Ma) orogenic mobile belts appear to intersect, the East African-Antarctic Orogen and the Kuunga Orogen. Hence, a better understanding of the tectonic structure of the Sor Rondane region is an important key for unravelling the complex geodynamic evolution of the eastern DML and adjacent regions of East Antarctica during the Late Neoproterozoic/Early Palaeozoic amalgamation of Gondwana. The SRM were recently (2011-2012) aerogeophysically investigated with a 5 km flight line spacing, covering a total area of similar to 140,000 km(2). The aeromagnetic data are correlated with ground-based magnetic susceptibility measurements and geological field data and allow to project tectonic terranes and individual structures into ice-covered areas. Magnetic anomalies and basement foliation trends are collinear in areas dominated by simple shear deformation, whereas an area of largescale refolding correlates with a subdued small-scale broken magnetic anomaly pattern. The latter area can be regarded as a distinct tectonic domain, the central Sor Rondane corridor. It magnetically separates the SRM into an eastern, a central, and a western portion. This subdivision is presumably related to late Pan-African extensional tectonics and suggests that such a tectonic regime may play a larger role than previously assumed. Voluminous late Pan-African granitoids, which are mainly undeformed, correlate with positive magnetic anomalies between +30 and +80 nT, while a strong magnetic high (+680 nT) near the granitic intrusion at Dufekfjellet is caused by a highly magnetised enigmatic body. The recently discovered prominent magnetic anomaly province of southeastern DML continues into the southern part of the Sor Rondane region, where only a few outcrops are exposed. Findings at these westernmost nunataks of the SRM indicate that the subdued magnetic anomaly pattern of this southeastern DML province is most likely caused by the predominance of metasedimentary rocks of yet unknown age.