Middle Jurassic rhyolite volcanism of eastern Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula: age correlations and stratigraphic relat

Recent geology fieldwork (2008/9, 2009/10) and researching a 50 year archive of geological field data going back to geology surveys from 1962 has led to an updated geological map of the East Coast of Graham Land.

Accompanying the new map are several publications that detail the revised stratigraphy and chronology of the geology of Graham Land. This paper presents new ages on the volcanic rocks from Graham Land that confirm their correlation with the extensive Jurassic volcanic rocks of Patagonia and elsewhere on the Antarctic Peninsula.

The high precision ages were determined in collaboration with workers at Stockholm Natural History Museum where an ion microprobe facility is available, which is one of the few instruments available in the world to accurately date these type of rocks.

The data has provided us with a new level of detail, enabling robust correlations between volcanic rocks to be made across the Antarctic Peninsula and into South America, which were joined together during the Jurassic, as part of the Gondwana supercontinent.

Find link to the full paper in the NERC Open Research Archive

More information:
Riley, T.R., Flowerdew, M.J., Hunter, M.A. & Whitehouse, M.J., 2010: Geological Magazine 147 (4), 581-595.

Provided by British Antarctic Survey