Studies of the Geology and Mineral Resources of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica

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Studies of the Geology and Mineral Resources of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica Studies of the Geology and Mineral Resources of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1351 Work done in cooperation with the National Science Foundation ,«/*' Studies of the Geology and Mineral Resources of the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica PETER D. ROWLEY and WALTER R. VENNUM, Editors A. Geology of the Southern Black Coast, Antarctic Peninsula By PETER D. ROWLEY, KARL S. KELLOGG, WALTER R. VENNUM, RICHARD B. WAITT, and STEPHEN J. BOYER B. Igneous Petrology of the Merrick Mountains, Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica By WALTER R. VENNUM and THOMAS S. LAUDON C. Porphyry-type Copper Deposits and Potassium-Argon Ages of Plutonic Rocks of the Orville Coast and Eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica By PETER D. ROWLEY, EDWARD FARRAR, PAUL E. CARRARA, WALTER R. VENNUM, and KARL S. KELLOGG U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1351 Work done in cooperation with the National Science Foundation UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1988 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL HODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Studies of the geology and mineral resources of the southern Antarctic Penninsula and eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. (U.S. Geological Survey professional paper ; 1351) "Work done in cooperation with the National Science Foundation." Contents: Geology of the southern Black Coast, Antarctic Peninsula/by Peter D. Rowley .. .[et al.] Igneous petrology of the Merrick Mountains, eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica/by Walter R. Vennum and Thomas S. Laudon Porphyry-type copper deposits and potassium-argon ages of plutonic rocks of the Orville Coast and eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica/by Peter D. Rowley. .[et al.]. Supt. of Docs, no.: I 19.16:1351 1. Geology Antarctic regions Antarctic Peninsula. 2. Geology Antarctic regions Ellsworth Land. 3. Mines and mineral resources Antarctic regions Antarctic Peninsula. 4. Mines and mineral resources Antarctic Regions Ellsworth Land. I. Rowley, Peter D. II. Vennum, Walter R. III. National Science Foundation (U.S.) IV. Series: Geological Survey professional paper ; 1351. QE350.S78 1988 559.8'9 86-600024 CONTENTS [Letters designate the chapters] Page (A) Geology of the southern Black Coast, Antarctic Peninsula, by Peter D. Rowley, Karl S. Kellogg, Walter R. Vennum, Richard B. Waitt, and Stephen J. Boyer ..... 1 (B) Igneous petrology of the Merrick Mountains, eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica, by Walter R. Vennum and Thomas S. Laudon .............................. 21 (C) Porphyry-type copper deposits and potassium-argon ages of plutonic rocks of the Or- ville Coast and eastern Ellsworth Land, Antarctica, by Peter D. Rowley, Edward Farrar, Paul E. Carrara, Walter R. Vennum, and Karl S. Kellogg ........... 35 Geology of the Southern Black Coast, Antarctic Peninsula By PETER D. ROWLEY, KARL S. KELLOGG, WALTER R. VENNUM, RICHARD B. WAITT, and STEPHEN J. BOYER STUDIES OF THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE SOUTHERN ANTARCTIC PENINSULA AND EASTERN ELLSWORTH LAND, ANTARCTICA US. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 135 1-A Work done in cooperation with the National Science Foundation Description of the bedrock geology of an area in the Andean belt of West Antarctica UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, W A S H I NGTON : 1988 CONTENTS Page Abstract ................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................ 1 Acknowledgments ........................................................... 4 Latady Formation ........................................................... 4 Mount Poster Formation ..................................................... 5 Plutonic rocks .............................................................. 10 West Wegener Range batholith ............................................ 11 East Wegener Range batholith ............................................. 12 Werner batholith ..........................~ ............................. 13 Structural geology ........................................................... 15 Plate-tectonic setting ........................................................ 15 Altered and mineralized rocks ................................................. 16 References ................................................................. 17 ILLUSTRATIONS Page FIGURE 1. Reconnaissance geologic map of the southern Black Coast, Antarctica .... 2 2. Oblique aerial photograph of part of the southern Black Coast, Antarctica 3 3. Photograph showing typical outcrop of slate of the Latady Formation .... 5 4. Ternary plot of modal quartz, K-feldspar, and plagioclase in igneous rocks, southern Black Coast, Antarctica ............................... 11 5. Photograph of two stoped-block masses within plutonic rock just inside the con­ tact of the West Wegener Range batholith ....................... 12 6. Ternary plots of selected oxides and normative minerals from plutonic rocks of the southern Black Coast and northern Lassiter Coast, Antarctica . 13 7. Photograph showing lighter-colored main-fades granite containing dark masses of border-facies granodiorite .................................... 14 TABLES TABLE 1. Modes of igneous rocks from the southern Black Coast, Antarctica ...... 2. Chemical analyses and CIPW norms of fresh igneous rocks from the southern Black Coast, Antarctica ....................................... STUDIES OF THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE SOUTHERN ANTARCTIC PENINSULA AND EASTERN ELLSWORTH LAND, ANTARCTICA GEOLOGY OF THE SOUTHERN BLACK COAST, ANTARCTIC PENINSULA By PETER D. ROWLEY', KARL S. KELLOGG1 , WALTER R. VENNUM2, RICHARD B. WAITX,', and STEPHEN J. BOYERS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The southern Black Coast, in the southeastern Antarctic Peninsula, includes the Wegener Range, Carey Range, and northern Dana Moun­ The southern Black Coast, which lies along the Wed- tains. The geology of the area is similar to that of the Lassiter Coast, dell Sea on the eastern flank of the southern Antarctic Orville Coast, English Coast, and eastern Ellsworth Land, all of which Peninsula (figs. 1, 2), includes the Wegener Range, Carey lie farther south in the peninsula. All these areas are part of the An­ Range, and northern Dana Mountains. The area was dean magmatic and deformational belt. Except for some late Paleozoic first visited and geologically mapped in reconnaissance or Triassic sedimentary rocks in the English Coast, the oldest rocks in the southern Antarctic Peninsula are Middle and Upper Jurassic during the 1972-73 austral summer by a U.S. Geolog­ fine-grained volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks of the Latady Forma­ ical Survey field party that included the authors. The tion and interlayered silicic- to intermediate-composition rocks of the northern Lassiter Coast, to the south, also was mapped Mount Poster Formation. Siltstone, slate, and fine-grained sandstone at this time (Rowley, 1973). The Antarctic Peninsula is dominate in the Latady Formation; ash-flow tuff, lava flows, and dikes part of the Andean magmatic and deformational belt dominate in the Mount Poster Formation. The Mount Poster Forma­ tion was deposited as a magmatic arc, southeast of which a shallow of Early Jurassic to late Tertiary age, which extends marine back-arc basin accumulated sediment that formed the Latady from the Andes of South America southward through Formation. The magmatic arc, which now underlies the axis of the the Scotia arc and Antarctic Peninsula, and from there southern Antarctic Peninsula, resulted from southeastward subduc- westward through Ellsworth Land, Marie Byrd Land, tion of the southern Pacific oceanic lithosphere beneath the Antarc­ and the western rim of the Pacific Ocean (Craddock, tic Peninsula The Jurassic sedimentary and volcanic rocks were tightly folded 1969, 1982; Herron and Tucholke, 1976; Craddock and along north- to north-northeast-trending axes as subduction continued. Hollister, 1976; LeMasurier and Wade, 1976; LeMasurier Late during deformation, in Early Cretaceous time, plutons and dikes and Rex, 1982; Cooper and others, 1982; Rowley, 1983). were emplaced into the rocks of the Jurassic arc and back-arc basin. The geology of the southern Black Coast (Rowley, The intrusive rocks define either another magmatic arc that formed 1973; Kamenev, 1975; Rowley and Williams, 1982) is during continued subduction or a late phase of the Jurassic magmatic arc; any volcanic material that may have accompanied the Early similar to that of the Lassiter Coast, Orville Coast, Cretaceous intrusive activity, however, has not been identified in the English Coast, and eastern Ellsworth Land, which lie southern Antarctic Peninsula. In the southern Black Coast area, ex­ successively farther south and west (Williams and posed plutons consist of the west Wegener Range batholith, the east others, 1972; Laudon and others, 1964, 1969; Laudon, Wegener Range batholith, and the Werner batholith. Granite and 1972; Rowley, 1978; Thomson and others, 1978; Rowley, granodiorite are the most abundant rock types in these plutons, but each pluton has a thin border facies of mafic rocks. The Jurassic Vennum, and others, 1983; Rowley and others, 1985). Ex­ sedimentary and volcanic wall rocks are contact metamorphosed over cept for some late Paleozoic or Triassic sedimentary wider zones than farther south in the Antarctic Peninsula, where rocks in the English Coast (Laudon and others,
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