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Highlights: [•] First finding of extensional detachment fault in Sør Rondane Mountains (SRM). [•] High-density, mafic- and ultramafic-dominant crust is exposed as a tectonic window. [•] Tectonic setting shifted from compression to extension in eastern SRM. [•] Extensional collapse model for late Proterozoic tectonics of SRM is proposed. [•] The tectonic model of SRM constrains the tectonic history of Gondwana amalgamation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the granulite facies rocks, the role of low H2O activity fluids is still unclear. The importance of understanding its role is gradually being recognized, and it enables us to help understand the process of granulite formation. Attention has been specifically focused on Cl-rich fluids and high-salinity alkaline fluids in the geochemical modification of continental crust. We have investigated the field distribution of Cl-rich biotite in the pelitic gneisses of the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica where Late Proterozoic to Cambrian granulites are widely exposed. Among 27 samples studied, a garnet-biotite-sillimanite gneiss from Balchenfjella was selected as best suited sample to constrain the P-T-t conditions of Cl-rich fluid or melt activity. This gneiss contains garnet porphyroblasts that have a P-rich core with oscillatory zoning in P. The garnet core includes Cl-poor biotite and fluorapatite. This core has been partially resorbed and discontinuously overgrown by a P-poor rim, in which Cl-rich biotite and chlorapatite are included. Coarse-grained, rounded zircon grains are exclusively included in the rim of the garnet porphyroblast and are also present in the matrix. This mode of occurrence suggests that the Cl-rich biotite and chlorapatite, together with coarse-grained zircon were formed almost simultaneously. The P-T conditions of Cl-rich biotite entrapment in the garnet rim are estimated to be ca. 800°C and 0.8GPa. In comparison, peak metamorphic condition is ca. 850°C and 1.1GPa. These pieces of observation suggest that Cl-rich fluid or melt infiltrated at the core-rim boundary of garnet. In the case of fluid infiltration, the ratio of the fluid in equilibrium with Cl-rich biotite and chlorapatite in the garnet rim are estimated to be ten times larger than that in equilibrium with Cl-poor biotite and fluorapatite in the matrix and the garnet core. The LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of the coarse-grained zircon included in the garnet rim gave concordia age of 603±14Ma. Therefore, Cl-rich fluid or melt infiltration took place close to the metamorphic peak condition of ca. 800°C and 0.8GPa at 603±14Ma. The field distribution of Cl-rich fluid or melt activity is somewhat linear in the Sør Rondane Mountains. High Cl-activity is located near the large scale ductile shear zones, suggesting its relation to high-strain zones. Regional distribution of high-grade Cl-rich fluid or melt activity in the Sør Rondane Mountains implies that it is one of the major phenomena in the continental collision processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Sør Rondane Mountains (SRM), located in the Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian East African-Antarctic collisional orogen is composed of medium- to high-grade metasedimentary, metaigneous and intrusive rocks of diverse composition. Within the metasedimentary rocks, the metacarbonate rocks are considered to have deposited chemically in the so-called the “Mozambique Ocean” that separated the continental blocks that amalgamated to form Gondwana and possibly record geochemical signatures of contemporaneous seawater. Here we attempt to constrain the apparent age of sedimentation of metasedimentary sequences using strontium isotope chemostratigraphy of the least altered metacarbonate rocks. Pure metacarbonate samples, collected during the 51st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition from different regions throughout the SRM, were selected based on careful screening using multiple geochemical parameters, such as carbon and oxygen isotopic composition and trace and rare earth element contents. We could successfully test the extent of alteration for the Sør Rondane metacarbonate samples, using Mn/Sr ratios, which show a positive correlation with 87Sr/86Sr ratios. After a rigorous geochemical screening in terms of post-depositional alterations, 18 samples were identified as least altered. These samples collectively gave regional initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios between 0.70566 and 0.70630, from Balchen, Brattnipene, Menipa and Tanngarden regions of the SRM, with the exception of Perlebandet region. These Sr isotopic ratios reflect seawater compositions of late-Tonian and early-Cryogenian age (880–850Ma and 820–790Ma), when compared with the evolution of Sr isotopes in the Neoproterozoic Oceans. Furthermore, these estimates are consistent with the carbon isotope chemostratigraphic curves of Neoproterozoic. The estimated apparent depositional ages of carbonate rocks in the SRM are also conformable with the reported detrital and metamorphic ages for this region. Carbonate rocks in the Perlebandet region shows low initial Sr isotope ratio (0.70482), suggesting that these rocks may have deposited earlier than other carbonate rocks in the SRM. Our results can be correlated with the chemostratigraphic depositional ages reported for carbonates from the Montepuetz Complex, Mozambique, suggesting the presence of contemporaneous platform environment on both sides of the possible suture. The finding of late-Tonian and early-Cryogenian carbonate deposition, potentially points toward a platform environment surrounding the tonalitic continental arc in the SW region of the SRM, prior to the amalgamation of Gondwana. The results obtained need to be tested with similar studies on metacarbonate sequences from the surrounding regions, which would help to resolve the processes and sequence of collision events that finally amalgamated Gondwana. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]