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Understanding magmatic activity on the Early Earth remains a challenge for geoscientists, as most of its rock record has been destroyed or altered. The oldest exposed rocks belong to the Tonalite-Trondhjemite-Granodiorite (TTG) plutonic suite, only rarely associated with volcanic units of the same age. For this reason, TTGs are often interpreted as magmas that have not erupted, and their compositions thought to represent melts. However, if TTGs are the left-overs from shallow magma reservoirs that have lost some melt to the now-eroded volcanic record, their bulk composition would be at least partly biased towards crystal cumulates. As post-emplacement metamorphism typically overprints many of the chemical characteristics of the initial magmatic minerals, the more resistant magmatic minerals (quartz and zircons) within sedimentary successions derived from these systems provide the best chance of identifying volcanic lithologies that have been completely eroded. Here we use a novel approach to show that Ti-in-quartz and Ti-in-zircon thermometers can be used to recognise different magmatic sources in sedimentary rocks. In quartz, Ti thermometry calibrated against blue cathodoluminescence obtained from scanning electron microscopy allows for fast and statistically meaningful Ti quantification in hundreds of sedimentary quartz grains. This imaging-derived Ti distribution matches well with the distribution of Ti concentrations obtained by LA-ICP-MS spot measurements of individual crystals. We compare this quartz record to Ti distributions in zircons, which have the benefit of also providing a crystallisation age. We applied these techniques to the Pikes Peak Batholith (CO, USA), a 1.1 Ga A-type granite hosting several pegmatites, and the Tava sandstone, a series of Cryogenian intra-granite sedimentary dikes that represents the oldest terrestrial sediments in the Front Ranges of Colorado. Our data successfully separates plutonic from pegmatitic crystals and shows that quartz and zircon crystals in the Tava Sandstone crystallised at statistically higher temperatures than the ones observed in the Pikes Peak Batholith, implying potential contribution from a volcanic source that is no longer available on the surface. The proposed techniques can therefore be used to identify eroded magmatic lithologies and to estimate proportions of different magmatic components (volcanic, plutonic, pegmatitic) in sediments.

Marine sediments, obtained from cores and captures from deep sea and continental shelf sites of West Antarctica, contain rich records of latest Miocene to Present glacial and deglacial processes and conditions at the margin of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS). The materials we are investigating were recovered from a) Resolution Drift on the Amundsen Sea continental rise (water depths >3900m), b)the continental shelf in the Amundsen Sea, Wrigley Gulf, and Sultzberger Bay (water depths

Ocean melting has thinned Antarctica’s ice shelves at an increasing rate over the past two decades, leading to loss of grounded ice. The Ross Ice Shelf is currently close to steady state but geological records indicate that it can disintegrate rapidly, which would accelerate grounded ice loss from catchments equivalent to 11.6 m of global sea level rise. Here, we use data from the ROSETTA-Ice airborne survey and ocean simulations to identify the principal threats to Ross Ice Shelf stability. We locate the tectonic boundary between East and West Antarctica from magnetic anomalies and use gravity data to generate a new high-resolution map of sub-ice-shelf bathymetry. The tectonic imprint on the bathymetry constrains sub-ice-shelf ocean circulation, protecting the ice shelf grounding line from moderate changes in global ocean heat content. In contrast, local, seasonal production of warm upper-ocean water near the ice front drives rapid ice shelf melting east of Ross Island, where thinning would lead to faster grounded ice loss from both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets. We confirm high modelled melt rates in this region using ROSETTA-Ice radar data. Our findings highlight the significance of both the tectonic framework and local ocean–atmosphere exchange processes near the ice front in determining the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The boundary between West and East Antarctica is a tectonic feature that bisects the Ross Ice Shelf. This boundary constrains ocean circulation under the ice, which affects ice stability, according to airborne survey data and ocean simulations.

West Antarctica developed as the tectonically active margin separating East Antarctica and the Pacific Ocean for almost half a billion years. Its dynamic history of magmatism, continental growth and fragmentation are recorded in sparse outcrops, and revealed by regional geophysical patterns. Compared with East Antarctica, West Antarctica is younger, more tectonically active and has a lower average elevation. We identify three broad physiographic provinces within West Antarctica and present their overlapping and interconnected tectonic and geological history as a framework for future study: 1/ The Weddell Sea region, which lay furthest from the subducting margin, but was most impacted by the Jurassic initiation of Gondwana break-up. 2/ Marie Byrd Land and the West Antarctic rift system which developed as a broad Cretaceous to Cenozoic continental rift system, reworking a former convergent margin. 3/ The Antarctic Peninsula and Thurston Island which preserve an almost complete magmatic arc system. We conclude by briefly discussing the evolution of the West Antarctic system as a whole, and the key questions which need to be addressed in future. One such question is whether West Antarctica is best conceived as an accreted collection of rigid microcontinental blocks (as commonly depicted) or as a plastically deforming and constantly growing melange of continental fragments and juvenile magmatic regions. This distinction is fundamental to understanding the tectonic evolution of young continental lithosphere. Defining the underlying geological template of West Antarctica and constraining its linkages to the dynamics of the overlying ice sheet, which is vulnerable to change due to human activity, is of critical importance.

IODP Expedition 379 deep-sea drilling in 2019 (Gohl et al. 2021, doi:10.14379/iodp.proc.379.2021), offered an opportunity to obtain chronostratigraphic control for seismic reflection data for Amundsen Sea shelf and slope deposits that record Miocene to Present fluctuations in volume of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Here we report the age and interpret the provenance of a volcanic ash bed recovered at/near the Plio-Pleistocene boundary at 31.51 meters below sea level in Hole U1533B and 33.94 mbsf in Hole U1533D. With distinctive geochemistry and inferred wide regional distribution, the bed may serve as a reliable age marker. In Hole 1533B, the fresh tephra forms a discrete layer interstratified within uniform brown marine mud. The layer has a sharp base and upper boundary that is gradational over 5 cm into overlying mud. Color reflectance and density data aided identification of the tephra horizon (diffuse) in Hole 1533D, ~1000m away. A possible on-land source for ash is the Miocene to Pleistocene Marie Byrd Land volcanic province, comprising 18 large alkaline volcanoes dominated by effusive lavas. Products of pyroclastic eruptions are uncommon, mainly occurring as distal englacial, and probably marine, tephra. We undertook an offshore-onshore comparison by first characterizing samples of Site U1533 tephra from a petrographic and geochemical standpoint, using thin section observations, EMPA-WDS glass compositions, and 40Ar/39Ar dating. We then identified onshore exposures with similar characteristics. The offshore tephra are composed of coarse (50-300µm) cuspate glass shards with elongated vesicles. The glass composition is rhyolite, with 75-79wt.% SiO2, ~4wt.% FeO and 0.0wt.% MgO. Single-crystal feldspar 40Ar/39Ar dates are 2.55±0.12 and 2.92±0.02 Ma for U1533B and 2.87 ±0.45 Ma for U1533D. The geochemistry, shard morphology, discrete bed expression, and lateral continuity between Holes U1533B-U1533D indicate that the rhyolite tephra formed as airfall settled to the deep seabed. The ca. 2.55 Ma age based on youngest feldspar grains differs slightly from the 2.1 to 2.2 Ma result obtained from in-progress core bio-magnetostratigraphy. Rare exposures of rhyolite are found in the Chang Peak/Mt. Waesche centers, 1080 km from Site U1533. We obtained pumice sample MB.7.3 (prior-published age of 1.6±0.2 Ma), which displays elevated FeO and F content, and MB.8.1, a specimen of porphyritic cryptocrystalline lava. Single-crystal sanidine 40Ar/39Ar dates are 1.315±0.007 Ma (MB.7.3) and 1.385±0.003 Ma (MB.8.1). Site U1533 samples share a geochemical affinity with these on-land rhyolites, expressed as similar SiO2, CaO, TiO2, MgO and FeO content, suggesting an origin for Site U1533 tephra in the Chang-Waesche volcanoes. A possible explanation for the distinctly greater age, and observed contrasts in Al2O3, Na2O and F percentages, is that Site U1533 tephra are older and erupted from a source entirely concealed beneath subsequent eruptions and the ice sheet. Our results suggest that rhyolite volcanism initiated earlier, was of longer duration than previously known (2.92 to 1.315 Ma), and dispersed tephra far offshore. The finding is significant because ash and aerosols produced by large eruptions may influence regional climate. Antarctica cooled significantly and ice sheets expanded in latest Pliocene time (McKay et al. 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1112248109).

IODP Expedition 379 to the Amundsen Sea continental rise recovered latest Miocene-Holocene sediments from two sites on a drift in water depths >3900m. Sediments are dominated by clay and silty clay with coarser-grained intervals and ice-rafted detritus (IRD) (Gohl et al. 2021, doi:10.14379/iodp.proc.379.2021). Cobble-sized dropstones appear as fall-in, in cores recovered from sediments >5.3 Ma. We consider that abundant IRD and the sparse dropstones melted out of icebergs formed due to Antarctic ice-sheet calving events. We are using petrological and age characteristics of the clasts from the Exp379 sites to fingerprint their bedrock provenance. The results may aid in reconstruction of past changes in icesheet extent and extend knowledge of subglacial bedrock.Mapped onshore geology shows pronounced distinctions in bedrock age between tectonic provinces of West or East Antarctica (e.g. Cox et al. 2020, doi:10.21420/7SH7-6K05; Jordan et al. 2020, doi.org/10.1038/s43017-019-0013-6). This allows us to use geochronology and thermochronology of rock clasts and minerals for tracing their provenance, and ascertain whether IRD deposited at IODP379 drillsites originated from proximal or distal Antarctic sources. We here report zircon and apatite U-Pb dates from four sand samples and five dropstones taken from latest Miocene, early Pliocene, and Plio-Pleistocene-boundary sediments. Additional Hf isotope data, and apatite fission track and 40Ar/39Ar Kfeldspar ages for some of the same samples help to strengthen provenance interpretations.The study revealed three distinct zircon age populations at ca. 100, 175, and 250 Ma. Using Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) statistical tests to compare our new igneous and detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb results with previously published data, we found strong similarities to West Antarctic bedrock, but low correspondence to prospective sources in East Antarctica, implying a role for icebergs calved from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The ~100 Ma age resembles plutonic ages from Marie Byrd Land and islands in Pine Island Bay. The ~250 and 175 Ma populations match published mineral dates from shelf sediments in the eastern Amundsen Sea Embayment as well as granite ages from the Antarctic Peninsula and the Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountains (EWM). The different derivation of coarse sediment sources requires changes in iceberg origin through the latest Miocene, early Pliocene, and Plio/Pleistocene, likely the result of changes in WAIS extent.One unique dropstone recovered from Exp379 Site U1533B is green quartz arenite, which yielded mostly 500-625 Ma detrital zircons. In visual appearance and dominant U-Pb age population, it resembles a sandstone dropstone recovered from Exp382 Site U1536 in the Scotia Sea (Hemming et al. 2020, https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2020AM/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/357276). K-S tests yield high values (P ≥ 0.6), suggesting a common provenance for both dropstones recovered from late Miocene to Pliocene sediments, despite the 3270 km distance separating the sites. Comparisons to published data, in progress, narrow the group of potential on-land sources to exposures in the EWM or isolated ranges at far south latitudes in the Antarctic interior. If both dropstones originated from the same source area, they could signify dramatic shifts in the WAIS grounding line position, and the possibility of the periodic opening of a seaway connecting the Amundsen and Weddell Seas.

The Great Unconformity marks a major gap in the continental geological record, separating Precambrian basement from Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. However, the timing, magnitude, spatial heterogeneity, and causes of the erosional event(s) and/or depositional hiatus that lead to its development are unknown. We present field relationships from the 1.07-Ga Pikes Peak batholith in Colorado that constrain the position of Cryogenian and Cambrian paleosurfaces below the Great Unconformity. Tavakaiv sandstone injectites with an age of ≥676 ± 26 Ma cut Pikes Peak granite. Injection of quartzose sediment in bulbous bodies indicates near-surface conditions during emplacement. Fractured, weathered wall rock around Tavakaiv bodies and intensely altered basement fragments within unweathered injectites imply still earlier regolith development. These observations provide evidence that the granite was exhumed and resided at the surface prior to sand injection, likely before the 717-Ma Sturtian glaciation for the climate appropriate for regolith formation over an extensive region of the paleolandscape. The 510-Ma Sawatch sandstone directly overlies Tavakaiv-injected Pikes granite and drapes over core stones in Pikes regolith, consistent with limited erosion between 717 and 510 Ma. Zircon (U-Th)/He dates for basement below the Great Unconformity are 975 to 46 Ma and are consistent with exhumation by 717 Ma. Our results provide evidence that most erosion below the Great Unconformity in Colorado occurred before the first Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth and therefore cannot be a product of glacial erosion. We propose that multiple Great Unconformities developed diachronously and represent regional tectonic features rather than a synchronous global phenomenon.

The Tavakaiv Quartzite (informal) in Colorado, USA, is one of the world's largest basement-hosted clastic injectite systems and provides a glimpse into the tectonic and near-surface environment of ancient North America. The age, origin, and significance of Tavakaiv injectites has been debated for over a century, owing to inherent difficulties with assigning absolute age constraints to unfossiliferous sandstone intrusions. Here, we apply an innovative combination of single-crystal hematite (U–Th)/He thermochronometry and fluid inclusion microthermometry to hematite mineralization associated with the injectites to document the age and ambient fluid conditions of Tavakaiv injectite formation. Our approach confirms individual hematite crystals comprising commonly analyzed polycrystalline aggregates are the He diffusion domains and that hematite (U–Th)/He closure temperature increases with crystal size. We apply apatite and zircon fission-track thermochronometry to the Tavakaiv Quartzite and host rock to account for the consequences of Phanerozoic orogenic episodes on the hematite (U–Th)/He dates and explain the observed trends between hematite He date and crystal size. Our results indicate that hematite formed 676 ± 26 million years ago (arithmetic mean date ± 1 σ ), constraining the timing of the Tavakaiv injection event. Fluid inclusion studies reveal that this mineralizing fluid was at least 200 °C and saline (>20 wt% CaCl2 equiv.). Comparison of new and previously published detrital zircon U–Pb age populations from quartzite samples yield a sediment source common to Tavakaiv bodies across a broader region and illuminate the greater areal extent of the Cryogenian injection event. We interpret that formation of basement-penetrating fracture arrays was associated with crustal extension within Rodinia at this time. This was accompanied by sand remobilization that promoted widespread sand injection within horsts bounding Neoproterozoic rift basins. The resulting sand injectites served as permeable pathways for contemporaneous circulation of saline groundwater, driven by fluid gradients in extensional and/or transtensional basins.

The dextral–reverse Alpine Fault offsets alluvial terraces of the Maruia River at Calf Paddock. RTK‐GPS surveying of the faulted terraces yields detailed measurements of fault slip across terraces T1–T5. Pits were excavated to log the stratigraphy, date the deposits and to thereby constrain fault slip rates for this site. The mean of the four largest dextral offsets across terrace T2 is 12.0 ± 1.3 m. The corresponding mean vertical offset is 1.6 ± 0.6 m. A single charcoal date with an age of 1095–1275 cal yr BP is used to derive minimum dextral and reverse slip rates of 10 ± 2 and 1.3 ± 0.5 mm/yr, respectively. These rates are comparable with others observed nearby at Little and Lost Mary creeks and from previous studies at Calf Paddock. These new late Holocene slip rate estimates highlight the northeastward decrease in strike-slip and dip-slip rate along the northern section of the Alpine Fault as motion is partitioned onto faults of the Marlborough Fault System. The lack of aseismic creep observ...

The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Florence Colleoni, which was incorrectly given as Florence Colloni. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

In Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, the Fosdick Mountains migmatite-cored gneiss dome was exhumed from mid- to lower middle crustal depths during the incipient stage of the West Antarctic Rift system in the mid-Cretaceous. Prior to and during exhumation, major crustal melting and deformation included transfer and emplacement of voluminous granitic material and numerous intrusions of mantle-derived diorite in dikes. A succession of melt- and magma-related structures formed at temperatures in excess of 665 ± 50 °C based on Ti-in-zircon thermometry. These record a transition from wrench to oblique extensional deformation that culminated in the development of the oblique South Fosdick Detachment zone. Solid-state fabrics within the detachment zone and overprinting brittle structures record translation of the detachment zone and dome to shallow levels. To determine the duration of exhumation and cooling, we sampled granite and gneisses at high spatial resolution for U–Pb zircon geochronology and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar hornblende and biotite thermochronology. U–Pb zircon crystallization ages for the youngest granites are 102 Ma. Three hornblende ages are 103 to 100 Ma and 12 biotite ages are 101 to 99 Ma. All overlap within uncertainty. The coincidence of zircon crystallization ages with 40 Ar/ 39 Ar cooling ages indicates cooling rates > 100 °C/m.y. that, when considered together with overprinting structures, indicates rapid exhumation of granite and migmatite from deep to shallow crustal levels within a transcurrent setting. Orientations of structures and age-constrained crosscutting relationships indicate counterclockwise rotation of stretching axes from oblique extension into nearly orthogonal extension with respect to the Marie Byrd Land margin. The rotation may be a result of localized extension arising from unroofing and arching of the Fosdick dome, extensional opening within a pull-apart zone, or changes in plate boundary configuration. The rapid tectonic and temperature evolution of the Fosdick Mountains dome lends support to recently developed numerical models of crustal flow and cooling in orogenic crust undergoing extension/transtension, and accords with numerous studies of migmatite-cored gneiss domes in transcurrent settings.

We report geochemical data from (meta-)sedimentary and igneous rocks that crop out in the Ford Ranges of western Marie Byrd Land and discuss the evolution and reworking of the crust in this region during Paleozoic subduction along the former Gondwanan convergent plate margin. Detrital zircon age spectra from the Swanson Formation, a widespread low-grade metaturbidite sequence, define distinct populations in the late Paleoproterozoic, late Mesoproterozoic, and Neoproterozoic–Cambrian. The late Paleoproterozoic group records magmatism derived from a mixed juvenile and crustal source. By contrast, the late Mesoproterozoic group yields Hf isotope values consistent with derivation from a juvenile Mesoproterozoic source inferred to be an unexposed Grenville-age orogenic belt beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet. For the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian population, Hf isotope values indicate reworking of these older materials during Ross–Delamerian orogenesis. New U-Pb ages from the Devonian–Carboniferous Ford Granodiorite suite across the Ford Ranges reveal an extended period of arc magmatism from 375 to 345 Ma. For four younger samples of Ford Granodiorite, Hf and O isotope values in zircon suggest involvement of a larger (meta-)sedimentary component in the petrogenesis than for two older samples. This contrasts with the secular trend toward more juvenile values documented from Silurian to Permian granite suites in the Tasmanides of eastern Australia and Famennian to Tournasian granite suites in New Zealand, pieces of continental crust that were once contiguous with western Marie Byrd Land along the Gondwana margin. The differences may relate to an along-arc change from the typical extensional accretionary mode in eastern Australia to a neutral or an advancing mode in West Antarctica, and to an across-arc difference in distance from the trench between the New Zealand fragments of Zealandia and western Marie Byrd Land. Upper Devonian anatectic granites in the Ford Ranges most likely record reworking of early Ford Granodiorite suite members during arc magmatism.

Understanding how the Antarctic ice sheet will respond to global warming relies on knowledge of how it has behaved in the past. The use of numerical models, the only means to quantitatively predict the future, is hindered by limitations to topographic data both now and in the past, and in knowledge of how subsurface oceanic, glaciological and hydrological processes interact. Incorporating the variety and interplay of such processes, operating at multiple spatio-temporal scales, is critical to modeling the Antarctic’s system evolution and requires direct observations in challenging locations. As these processes do not observe disciplinary boundaries neither should our future research.

Detrital zircon provenance analysis is used to resolve the age of sandstone injectites together with source sandstones that form faultbounded, tabular bodies within Mesoproterozoic crystalline rocks of the Colorado Front Range. Named Tava sandstone (informal), the unit is a product of liquefaction and remobilization of mature quartz sediment within source bodies having volumes ≥1 × 10 6 m 3 into dikes up to 6 m in width. To surmount the indeterminate age of emplacement, we obtained new U-Pb detrital zircon age data for two source sandstones, three dikes and one sill, for comparison to four Paleozoic arenites. Tava age distributions feature a dominant 1.33–0.97 Ga broad age group and narrow ca. 1.11, 1.44, and 1.70 Ga groups, with several smaller age groups >1.5 Ga. The Tava detrital zircon results are dissimilar to Paleozoic sandstones but closely resemble published detrital zircon reference data for Grenville orogen–derived siliciclastic units of the western United States. The similarity in age distributions is borne out by statistical comparisons among Tava sandstone, Paleozoic samples, and Neoproterozoic strata that reveal a high probability of correlation of Tava sandstone to ca. 800–680 Ma strata deposited during intracontinental extension. We conclude that Tava sandstone is Neoproterozoic in age and provides a new avenue to investigation of Rodinia’s terrestrial paleoenvironment.

Basement-cored uplifts are observed globally and remain an enigmatic feature of plate tectonics due to the fact that, in many cases, they occur distant from a plate boundary. The Laramide Bighorn Arch in Wyoming is an archetypal basement-involved foreland arch and provides an excellent setting for the investigation of such structures. Previous studies proposed diverse arch formation models; each of which predicts a unique crustal geometry. We use high-resolution crustal imaging from teleseismic P wave receiver functions to test these models. We obtained our data from 239 three-component seismometers deployed as part of the Bighorns Arch Seismic Experiment as well as coeval regional Transportable Array stations. A sequential, two-layer thickness VP/VS (H-κ) stacking algorithm constrains sediment and crustal structure. Receiver function Common Conversion Point stacking results in 2-D transect images across the arch. Our results define an upwarp of the crust beneath the central and northern arch that extends into the Powder River Basin, north-northeast of the arch. The lack of Moho-cutting faults or a Moho geometry mirroring the arch rules out most shortening models except a crustal detachment model where shortening was accomplished by fault-propagation folding on a thrust splay ramping off a midcrustal detachment fault. The mismatch between gentle, symmetric Moho and asymmetric Laramide arch geometries and their trends suggests a pre-Laramide origin for at least a part of the Moho high. This high, perhaps in combination with a lesser degree of Laramide lithospheric buckling, may have caused emergent Laramide thrusting and thus nucleated the Bighorn Arch. Our results suggest that midcrustal detachment can form basement-involved foreland arches and suggest the hypothesis that preexisting undulations in the Moho may have nucleated individual arches.

In the Wet Mountains of central Colorado, we document evidence for increasing metamorphic grade and associated higher amounts of partial melting along a transect from northwest to southeast. Field observations of structural orientation and style, qualitative assessment of strain intensity, analysis of metamorphic mineral assemblages, and macroscopic identification of leucosomes and migmatites are complemented by the use of melt microstructures to carefully document the presence and locations of former partial melt and to identify melt-producing reactions. In the northwest Wet Mountains, migmatitic foliation is moderately well developed, and partial melting occurred via granite wet melting and muscovite-dehydration melting, with rare melt pseudomorphs remaining. At Dawson Mountain in the central part of the range, inferred former melt channels are preserved along grain and subgrain boundaries, deformation appears more intense, and anatexis occurred through biotite-dehydration melting. Farthest to the south, the highest intensity of strain is inferred, with very closely spaced foliations, abundant dynamic recrystallization, and local mylonitization occurring in rocks of granitic composition, and partial melting occurring via granite wet melting. Metapelitic rocks experienced biotite-dehydration melting and contain garnet with Mn-rich rims and Mn-poor cores mantled by plagioclase, decussate biotite, and quartz, textures indicating back-reaction between melt and garnet. These textures indicate there was abundant melt within these highest-grade rocks and extensive melt-rock interaction. Throughout the Wet Mountains, deformation is concentrated in areas where melt-producing reactions occurred, and melt appears to be localized along deformation-related features, suggesting a correlation between partial melting and deformation. The northern Wet Mountains contain few plutons, whereas the central and southern portions of the Wet Mountains contain more pervasive dikes and sills and may contain more former melt as a result of both higher metamorphic grade and widespread thermal insulation. The Wet Mountains represent an exhumed section of formerly molten middle crust located at the transition between upper and lower crust and provide insight into processes ongoing at depth in modern orogenic belts. The microstructures indicative of former partial melt, textures associated with melt-rock interaction, and melting reactions we have identified in the Wet Mountains will greatly facilitate the recognition of other such exhumed sections.

A diorite pluton and widely distributed mafic dykes occur in the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex, which is interpreted to represent middle-to-lower crustal rocks of the paleo-Pacific active continental margin of Gondwana. The mafic dykes exhibit a variety of relationships with host rocks in the field ranging from undeformed dykes with sharp contacts with host gneisses to dismembered dykes with commingled textures and numerous back-veins of leucosome intruded from host migmatitic gneisses suggestive of significant interaction with crustal rocks. New U–Pb ages for magmatic zircon in these rocks yield Cretaceous crystallization ages ranging from ca 113 Ma to ca 98 Ma for the mafic dykes and ca 100 Ma for the diorite pluton. These mafic intrusive rocks, which contain abundant hydrous minerals, are medium- to high-K-series calc-alkaline rocks with basic–intermediate compositions (47–59 wt.% SiO2 for the mafic dykes and 52–56 wt.% SiO2 for the diorite pluton). They have trace element patterns characterized by LILE enrichments and negative Nb anomalies indicating an origin from a hydrous mantle source metasomatized by slab-derived components. The samples without evidence of interaction with crustal rocks (11 of 14 samples), which are likely to better reflect the mantle source composition, have positive eSr(100 Ma) values (+ 8.1 to + 14.5) and negative to slightly positive eNd(100 Ma) values (− 1.6 to + 2.5) consistent with derivation from an enriched mantle source. These eleven samples may be divided into two groups either characterized by higher LILE/HFSE ratios, less radiogenic eSr(100 Ma) values and more radiogenic eNd(100 Ma) values, or characterized by relatively lower LILE/HFSE ratios, more radiogenic eSr(100 Ma) values and less radiogenic eNd(100 Ma) values suggesting differences in the mantle source. The results of this study are consistent with the melting of a variably metasomatized sub-arc mantle source during a transition from a wrench to a transtensional tectonic setting, but are inconsistent with a mantle plume origin.

The Fosdick migmatite–granite complex of West Antarctica preserves evidence of two crustal differentiation events along a segment of the former active margin of Gondwana, one in the Devonian–Carboniferous and another in the Cretaceous. The Hf–O isotope composition of zircons from Devonian–Carboniferous granites is explained by mixing of material from two crustal sources represented by the high-grade metamorphosed equivalents of a Lower Palaeozoic turbidite sequence and a Devonian calc-alkaline plutonic suite, consistent with an interpretation that the Devonian–Carboniferous granites record crustal reworking without input from a more juvenile source. The Hf–O isotope composition of zircons from Cretaceous granites reflects those same two sources, together with a contribution from a more juvenile source that is most evident in the detachment-hosted, youngest granites. The relatively non-radiogenic eHf isotope characteristics of zircons from the Fosdick complex granites are similar those from the Permo-Triassic granites from the Antarctic Peninsula. However, the Fosdick complex granites contrast with coeval granites in other localities along and across the former active margin of Gondwana, including the Tasmanides of Australia and the Western Province of New Zealand, where the wider range of more radiogenic eHf values of zircon suggests that crustal growth through the addition of juvenile material plays a larger role in granite genesis. These new results highlight prominent arc-parallel and arc-normal variations in the mechanisms and timing of crustal reworking v. crustal growth along the former active margin of Gondwana.

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, USA constitutes a paradigm for reconciling contemporary human actions and geological heritage conservation. The Amphitheatre, built upon red beds of the east flank of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, was constructed in the late 1930s with close attention to and respect for the existing geological landform. The park surrounding the performance space is incorporated in the Mountains Park System together with the adjoining Dinosaur Ridge/Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark. Together, the Red Rocks Park and the Dinosaur Ridge provide access to an informative geological cross-section that exemplifies the geology of the Rocky Mountains, from the Precambrian crystalline basement to and across the Phanerozoic cover. Park visitors and concert goers may explore or encounter the transect along walks that are marked by geology information panels. The situation of the Amphitheatre performance space within the geological transect provides a powerful example of the coexistence of different values and multiple uses that may increase the heritage of the site. Settings like this that educate and increase civic awareness of locations of geological value are potentially positive for geoconservation.

The Fosdick migmatite-granite complex in West Antarctica records evidence for two high-temperature metamorphic events, the first during the Devonian-Carboniferous and the second during the Cretaceous. The conditions of each high-temperature metamorphic event, both of which involved melting and multiple melt-loss events, are investigated using phase equilibria modelling during successive melt-loss events, microstructural observations and mineral chemistry. In situ SHRIMP monazite and TIMS Sm-Nd garnet ages are integrated with these results to constrain the timing of the two events. In areas that preferentially preserve the Devonian-Carboniferous (M1) event, monazite grains in leucosomes and core domains of monazite inclusions in Cretaceous cordierite yield an age of c. 346 Ma, which is interpreted to record the timing of monazite growth during peak M1 metamorphism (820-870 � C, 7.5-11.5 kbar) and the formation of garnet-sillimanite-biotite-melt-bearing assem- blages. Slightly younger monazite spot ages between c. 331 and 314 Ma are identified from grains located in fractured garnet porphyroblasts, and from inclusions in plagioclase that surround relict garnet and in matrix biotite. These ages record the growth of monazite during garnet breakdown associated with cooling from peak M1 conditions. The Cretaceous (M2) overprint is recorded in compositionally homogeneous monazite grains and rim domains in zoned monazite grains. This monazite yields a protracted range of spot ages with a dominant population between c. 111 and 96 Ma. Rim domains of monazite inclusions in cordierite surrounding garnet and in coarse-grained poikiloblasts of cordierite yield a weighted mean age of c. 102 Ma, interpreted to constrain the age of cordierite growth. TIMS Sm-Nd ages for garnet are similar at 102-99 Ma. Mineral equilibria modelling of the residual protolith composition after Carboniferous melt loss and removal of inert M1 garnet constrains M2 conditions to 830-870 � C and 6-7.5 kbar. The modelling results suggest that there was growth and resorption of garnet during the M2 event, which would facilitate overprinting of M1 compositions during the M2 prograde metamorphism. Measured garnet compositions and Sm-Nd diffusion modelling of garnet in the migmatitic gneisses suggest resetting of major elements and the Sm-Nd system during the Cretaceous M1 overprint. The c. 102-99 Ma garnet Sm-Nd closure ages correspond to cooling below 700 � C during the rapid exhumation of the Fosdick migmatite-granite complex.

Melt that crystallizes as granite at shallow crustal levels in orogenic belts originates from migmatite and residual granulite in the deep crust; this is the most important mass-transfer process affecting the continents. Initially melt collects in grain boundaries before migrating along structural fabrics and through discordant fractures initiated during synanatectic deformation. As this permeable porosity develops, melt flows down gradients in pressure generated by the imposed tectonic stress, moving from grain boundaries through outcrop-scale vein networks to ascent conduits. Gravity then drives melt ascent through the crust, either in dikes that fill ductile-to-brittle–elastic fractures or by pervasive flow in planar and linear channels in belts of steep structural fabrics. Melt may be arrested in its ascent at the ductile-to-brittle transition zone or it may be trapped en route by a developing tectonic structure.

The Fosdick migmatite–granite complex in West Antarctica records evidence for crustal melting during two periods of tectonism along the East Gondwana margin. Initial high-temperature metamorphism in the Devonian–Carboniferous (M1) was broadly contemporaneous with emplacement of calc-alkaline arc magmas during Pacific-style accretionary margin convergence. This event involved metamorphism of arc plutonic rocks soon after their emplacement and partial melting and migmatization of host metasedimentary rocks. Preservation of M1 garnet-bearing assemblages and mineral equilibria modeling of the metasedimentary rock and calc-alkaline plutonic rock protolith compositions regionally exposed constrain conditions of M1 metamorphism to 820–870 °C and 7.5–11.5 kbar. A second anatectic event during the Cretaceous (M2) resulted in metamorphism of plutonic rocks and partial melting of fertile metasedimentary rocks that had remained at a high enough structural level to have been subsolidus during the first anatectic event, and a metamorphic overprint on now residual paragneisses characterized by the growth of M2 cordierite after garnet, and after biotite + sillimanite. Mineral equilibria modeling of para- and orthogneiss compositions in the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex constrain conditions of M2 metamorphism to 830–870 °C and 6–7.5 kbar. We use the results of mineral equilibria modeling to assess the constituents of the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex as melt sources and as domains of melt transfer and melt accumulation during the two anatectic events. Modeling the range of metasedimentary rock protolith compositions shows that ~ 4–25 vol.% melt was produced at the conditions of M1 metamorphism, although most compositions would have been fertile enough to reach the melt connectivity transition (~ 7 vol.%) leading to the development of a melt extraction pathway and subsequent melt loss. The preservation of peak-M1 assemblages in the paragneiss is consistent with melt loss, and modeling based on a representative protolith composition indicates that a minimum of 70% of the total melt produced must have been extracted from the metasedimentary rock source. The intrusive plutonic rocks produce ~ 2–3 vol.% melt during the M1 event. Although the plutonic rocks were not a significant melt source at the level exposed, granites derived from these rocks but sourced at a deeper crustal level accumulated within the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex during the M1 event. The elevated geotherms in a magmatic arc environment allow the possibility that higher crustal levels in the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex remained subsolidus during the M1 event, and could be fertile sources during the M2 event. At peak M2 conditions, these fertile metasedimentary rocks would produce ~ 5–30 vol.% melt, whereas the plutonic rocks were not likely a significant source of melt at this crustal depth. The residual paragneisses that underwent melting and melt loss during the M1 event are estimated to produce ~ 12 vol.% additional melt during M2. The mechanical anisotropy created by the residual gneisses likely produced a gradient in melt pressure. This gradient, together with shallow fabrics in the hosting gneisses, could have acted to focus M2 melts derived from the fertile metasedimentary rocks into a horizontally-sheeted leucogranite complex. The accumulation of these melts would have lead to pronounced weakening of the crust, facilitating the exhumation of the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex during the transition from regional shortening during M2 to regional extension at ca. 100 Ma.

In the Wet Mountains, Colorado, Proterozoic rocks exposed along an oblique north-south tilted section preserve evidence of regional deformation and high temperature metamorphism in the middle and lower crust at ca. 1435–1365 Ma. Deformation of gneisses in the northern Wet Mountains is partitioned within discrete zones of subvertical foliation and northeast-trending folds, a product of northwest-southeast contraction or constriction associated with transcurrent deformation. Gneisses in the north are generally not migmatitic, and granitic intrusions form discrete bodies with distinct contacts. Shear zone foliation is cut by a late syntectonic dike with a U-Pb zircon age of 1430+5/–3 Ma, constraining the age of shear zone deformation in the upper crust. In the central to southern Wet Mountains, gneisses exhibit migmatitic foliation that dips moderately northeast, with dip- to oblique-slip mineral lineation throughout. Granite forms pervasive sills and interconnected sheets with gradational or indistinct contacts. Gneissic granite that yields a U-Pb zircon age of 1435 ± 4 Ma was emplaced into amphibolite gneiss containing 1436 ± 2 Ma metamorphic zircon. Younger, foliated granite sills were emplaced at 1390 ± 10 Ma. Our new results indicate contemporaneous deformation and metamorphism throughout the middle and lower crust at ca. 1.4 Ga. We interpret the zone of migmatitic crust pervaded by granite to represent a weak, low-viscosity, flowing lower crust that controlled the pattern of distributed deformation in the comparatively strong, brittle crust above. Thus, the Wet Mountains may be viewed as a deeply exhumed analog for the mid-crustal, low-viscosity layers that are inferred to exist in modern intracontinental orogenic settings and continental rift provinces.

The upward transfer of partially molten crust and the formation of gneiss domes and metamorphic core complexes commonly take place by localization of normal or oblique extension in the middle and upper crust. In Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica, a transition from wrench to oblique extension occurred during oblique plate divergence along the East Gondwana margin and intracontinental crustal extension associated with the West Antarctic Rift System in mid-Cretaceous time. Migmatites in the Fosdick dome record steep fabrics formed during wrenching, and associated granite networks display crystallization ages of 117–115 Ma. These steep fabrics are overprinted by subhorizontal foliation and leucogranite sheets with crystallization ages in the 109–102 Ma range. Syntectonic emplacement of granite sheets in the South Fosdick detachment zone indicates that detachment tectonics led to rapid exhumation of the terrain by 100 Ma. This study has implications for understanding melt transport, magma accumulation, and the formation of detachments in an oblique tectonic setting.

Production of granite in the middle to lower crust and emplacement into the middle to upper crust at convergent plate margins is the dominant mechanism of crustal differentiation. The Fosdick Mountains of West Antarctica host migmatitic paragneisses and orthogneisses corresponding to the middle to lower crust and granites emplaced as dikes, sills and small plutons, which record processes of intracrustal differentiation along the East Gondwana margin. U–Pb chronology on magmatic zircon from granites reveals emplacement at c. 358–336 Ma and c. 115–98 Ma, consistent with a polyphase tectonic evolution of the region during Devonian–Carboniferous continental arc activity and Cretaceous continental rifting. The gneisses and granites exposed in the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex were derived from Early Paleozoic quartzose turbidites of the Swanson Formation and Ford Granodiorite suite calc-alkaline plutonic rocks, both of which are widely distributed outside the Fosdick Mountains and have affinity with rock elsewhere in East Gondwana. Granites of both Carboniferous and Cretaceous age have distinct chemical signatures that reflect different melting reactions and accessory phase behavior in contrasting sources. Based on whole-rock major and trace element geochemistry and Sr–Nd isotope compositions, Carboniferous granites with low Rb/Sr are interpreted to be products of melting of the Ford Granodiorite suite. Extant mineral equilibria modeling indicates that the Ford Granodiorite suite compositions produce melt volumes >10 vol. % at temperatures above biotite stability, involving the breakdown of hornblende + plagioclase, consistent with the high CaO and Na 2 O contents in the low Rb/Sr granites. The Carboniferous low Rb/Sr granites show a sequence from near-melt compositions to compositions with increasing amounts of early crystallized biotite and plagioclase and evidence for apatite dissolution in the source. Carboniferous granites derived from the Swanson Formation are scarce, suggesting that the significant quantities of melt produced from the now residual paragneisses were emplaced at shallower crustal levels than are now exposed. The Cretaceous granites are divided into two distinct groups. An older group of granites (c. 115–110 Ma) has compositions consistent with a dominant Ford Granodiorite source, and characteristics that indicate that they may be less evolved equivalents of the regionally exposed Byrd Coast Granite suite at higher crustal levels. The younger group of granites (c. 109–102 Ma) has distinct light rare earth element depleted signatures. The chemical and isotopic data suggest that these granites were derived from partial melting of both fertile and residual Swanson Formation and had low water contents, indicating that the source rocks may have been dehydrated prior to anatexis as the Byrd Coast Granite suite magmas were transferring through and accumulating at higher crustal levels. The Cretaceous granites derived from the Swanson Formation make up a prominent horizontally sheeted leucogranite complex. The accumulation of these melts probably facilitated melt-induced weakening of the crust during a well-documented transition from regional shortening to regional extension, the formation of a detachment structure, and rapid exhumation of the Fosdick migmatite–granite complex. These multiple episodes of melting along the East Gondwana margin resulted in initial stabilization of the continental crust in the Carboniferous and further intracrustal differentiation in the Cretaceous.

The Fosdick Mountains migmatite–granite complex in West Antarctica records episodes of crustal melting and plutonism in Devonian–Carboniferous time that acted to transform transitional crust, dominated by immature oceanic turbidites of the accretionary margin of East Gondwana, into stable continental crust. West Antarctica, New Zealand and Australia originated as contiguous parts of this margin, according to plate reconstructions, however, detailed correlations are uncertain due to a lack of isotopic and geochronological data. Our study of the mid-crustal exposures of the Fosdick range uses U–Pb SHRIMP zircon geochronology to examine the tectonic environment and timing for Paleozoic magmatism in West Antarctica, and to assess a correlation with the better known Lachlan Orogen of eastern Australia and Western Province of New Zealand. NNE–SSW to NE–SW contraction occurred in West Antarctica in early Paleozoic time, and is expressed by km-scale folds developed both in lower crustal metasedimentary migmatite gneisses of the Fosdick Mountains and in low greenschist-grade turbidite successions of the upper crust, present in neighboring ranges. The metasedimentary rocks and structures were intruded by calc-alkaline, I-type plutons attributed to arc magmatism along the convergent East Gondwana margin. Within the Fosdick Mountains, the intrusions form a layered plutonic complex at lower structural levels and discrete plutons at upper levels. Dilational structures that host anatectic granite overprint plutonic layering and migmatitic foliation. They exhibit systematic geometries indicative of NNE–SSW stretching, parallel to a first-generation mineral lineation. New U–Pb SHRIMP zircon ages for granodiorite and porphyritic monzogranite plutons, and for leucogranites that occupy shear bands and other mesoscopic-scale structural sites, define an interval of 370 to 355 Ma for plutonism and migmatization. Paleozoic plutonism in West Antarctica postdates magmatism in the western Lachlan Orogen of Australia, but it coincides with that in the central part of the Lachlan Orogen and with the rapid main phase of emplacement of the Karamea Batholith of the Western Province, New Zealand. Emplaced within a 15 to 20 million year interval, the Paleozoic granitoids of the Fosdick Mountains are a product of subduction-related plutonism associated with high temperature metamorphism and crustal melting. The presence of anatectic granites within extensional structures is a possible indication of alternating strain states (‘tectonic switching’) in a supra-subduction zone setting characterized by thin crust and high heat flow along the Devonian–Carboniferous accretionary margin of East Gondwana.

Surface exposure ages of glacial deposits in the Ford Ranges of western Marie Byrd Land indicate continuous thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by more than 700 meters near the coast throughout the past 10,000 years. Deglaciation lagged the disappearance of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere by thousands of years and may still be under way. These results provide further evidence that parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are on a long-term trajectory of decline. West Antarctic melting contributed water to the oceans in the late Holocene and may continue to do so in the future.

New field investigations in the Wet Mountains of Colorado reveal informative structural-plutonic relationships surrounding Mesoproterozoic intrusions. Gneisses and schists of the Wet Mountains host syntectonic ∼1.7-Ga and ∼1.4-Ga plutons plus two to three generations of sills and stocks. Comparison of two study areas reveals a variation in metamorphic grade, crustal position, and structural rigidity of gneisses hosting the 1.4-Ga intrusions, with implications for the interpretation of dynamic versus anorogenic intrusive settings. An episode of post-1.4-Ga mineral growth was recorded in the Wet Mountains by overprinting mineral textures and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar hornblende ages of 1369 ± 4 to 1342 ± 6 Ma. Mineral textures and rock fabrics provide evidence of three significant Proterozoic deformational events in the Wet Mountains. Predominant northwest- to west-striking foliation is a second-phase fabric, S 2 , developed during regional plutonism at 1.66–1.7 Ga. S 0 , relict sedimentary layering, and S 1 , an earlier penetrative foliation, are preserved within cordierite. Fabric development and metamorphism during 1.4-Ga magmatism varied across the range. Middle amphibolite-grade gneisses of the Arkansas River Canyon in the north give way to stromatic migmatites in the central Wet Mountains. S 2 was completely transposed in two discrete shear zones. The Five Points Gulch shear zone strikes approximately north-south and records sinistral-oblique displacement along a sillimanite mineral lineation. The Newlin Creek shear zone strikes northwest, with top-southwest transport. Fabric within 1.4-Ga intrusions varies from locally developed foliation on discordant margins (northern Wet Mountains) to strong concordant foliation in extensive sills (central Wet Mountains). Later sills are less well-foliated and slightly discordant, indicating syntectonic granitic emplacement. Blocks of host gneiss were assimilated along some sill margins, attesting to a similarity in temperature between intruded material and country rock. The variation in degree of metamorphic recrystallization, degree of transposition, and style of intrusion from north to south in the Wet Mountains is attributed to southward increase in temperature and structural depth. This study suggests that pluton emplacement depth influenced structural development and thus bears on the interpretation of dynamic versus anorogenic context for 1.4-Ga magmatism.

[1] The Fosdick Mountains, West Antarctica, expose a 15 x 80 km migmatite-cored gneiss dome consisting of migmatitic gneisses, diatexite migmatite, and subhorizontal leucogranite sheets. The Fosdick dome was emplaced and exhumed in the mid-Cretaceous due to oblique extension associated with the West Antarctic Rift system along the West Antarctic–New Zealand segment of East Gondwana. The dome is bounded to the south by a dextral oblique detachment structure and to the north by an inferred dextral strike-slip fault. Within the Fosdick dome and in the detachment zone, granite occupies leucosomes, dikes, sills, and dilatant and shear structures. The pattern of kilometer-scale domains of migmatite and granite suggest that lithologic variations and heterogeneous deformation (boudinage) resulted in pressure gradients that enhanced melt flow and magma accumulation in the Fosdick dome. Steep foliations are overprinted, folded, and transposed by subhorizontal fabrics. The crosscutting relationship is interpreted as a transition from wrench deformation to oblique divergence. Steep structures in the dome host concordant, subvertical leucosome and granite sheets yielding SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages between ca. 117 and 114 Ma. Prevalent subhorizontal domains host large volumes of subhorizontal diatexite migmatite and granite sheets that yield U-Pb zircon ages between ca. 109 and 102 Ma. These ages indicate a timescale for melt influx of approximately 15 Ma and that the transition from wrench to oblique divergence may have occurred in as little as 5 Ma. Granites with crystallization ages between ca. 109 and 102 Ma were also emplaced in the South Fosdick Detachment zone, indicating that the detachment was active during oblique divergence. SHRIMP U-Pb titanite ages between ca. 102 and 97 Ma for late- to post-tectonic diorite dikes are interpreted as emplacement ages and give a minimum age for gneissic foliation development during detachment faulting. The Fosdick Mountains preserve a record of the middle to lower crustal response to a transition from wrench to oblique extensional deformation. Overprinting structural relationships show that a change in the angle of oblique extension can induce accumulation of subhorizontal magma sheets and lead to initiation of a detachment zone.