The significance of mid-Palaeozoic basement in Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula
A mid-Palaeozoic basement to the Antarctic Peninsula is confirmed by a geochronological study of the gneissose country rock of the Mesozoic magmatic arc of eastern Graham Land. Rb–Sr whole-rock ages of 410 ± 15 and 426 ± 12 Ma from samples of orthogneiss indicate a previously unrecognized episode of granitic magmatism in the Antarctic Peninsula during the Silurian. Sm–Nd data on garnet–whole-rock pairs indicate that subsequent amphibolite facies metamorphism occurred in late Carboniferous times, probably as a result of plutonism.