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Published online October 1, 2024

Copyright © International Union of Geological Sciences.

Microstructures of spinel peridotite xenoliths from Baker Rocks in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica: evolution of lithospheric mantle around the Transantarctic Mountains

Daeyeong Kim

Division of Glacier and Earth Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to:E-mail: dkim@kopri.re.kr

Received: March 18, 2024; Revised: September 13, 2024; Accepted: September 13, 2024

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Fabrics of five spinel peridotites collected from Baker Rocks in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, were investigated to elucidate the evolution of the lithospheric mantle surrounding the Transantarctic Mountains. Analyses revealed the development of crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs), a slight decrease in mean grain size and J-index across varying proportions of clinopyroxene, and interlobate to amoeboid textures. These findings indicate that dislocation creep is the dominant deformation mechanism for the analyzed samples. Olivine CPOs were examined using eigenvalues, fabric-index angle, and rotation axes due to the limited size of hand specimens, resulting in the identification of AG-, D-, and A-type fabrics. The development of AG-type olivine fabric was attributed to melt-rich environments, supported by low fabric indices and the highest proportion of clinopyroxene, implying a correlation with the opening of the West Antarctic Rift System during the Cretaceous period. Conversely, the formation of D-type olivine CPO was associated with low temperature and high-stress conditions, as evidenced by relatively strong fabric strength, insinuating its relation to the early Paleozoic subduction process. Further research examining the relationship between microstructures and geologic time is required to enhance our understanding of deformation processes over geologic timescales.

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