Extremely low long‐term erosion rates around the Gamburtsev Mountains in interior East Antarctica
Abstract
The high elevation and rugged relief (>3 km) of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) have long been considered enigmatic. Orogenesis normally occurs near plate boundaries, not cratonic interiors, and large‐scale tectonic activity last occurred in East Antarctica during the Pan‐African (480–600 Ma). We sampled detrital apatite from Eocene sands in Prydz Bay at the terminus of the Lambert Graben, which drained a large pre‐glacial basin including the northern Gamburtsev Mountains. Apatite fission‐track and (U‐Th)/He cooling ages constrain bedrock erosion rates throughout the catchment. We double‐dated apatites to resolve individual cooling histories. Erosion was very slow, averaging 0.01–0.02 km/Myr for >250 Myr, supporting the preservation of high elevation in interior East Antarctica since at least the cessation of Permian rifting. Long‐term topographic preservation lends credence to postulated high‐elevation mountain ice caps in East Antarctica since at least the Cretaceous and to the idea that cold‐based glaciation can preserve tectonically inactive topography.
Additional Information
© 2010 American Geophysical Union. Received 12 August 2010; revised 30 September 2010; accepted 4 October 2010; published 20 November 2010. This work was supported by NSF-ANT0538580 and -ANT0817163. This work also benefited from discussions with the Earth System Evolution Program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Analytical assistance from Stefan Nicolescu is appreciated. We thank Stefanic Brachfeld, George Gehrels, Steve Goldstein, and Tom Wagner for samples and discussion. We acknowledge the FSU Antarctic Research Facility and the IODP for core samples. We thank John J. Veevers for extensive review comments.Attached Files
Published - Cox2010p12239Geophys_Res_Lett.pdf
Supplemental Material - 2010gl045106-ts01.pdf
Supplemental Material - 2010gl045106-ts02.pdf
Supplemental Material - 2010gl045106-txts01.pdf
Supplemental Material - 2010gl045106-txts02.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 21429
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20101220-100635447
- ANT0538580
- NSF
- ANT0817163
- NSF
- Created
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2010-12-20Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field