40Ar/39Ar record of late Pan–African exhumation of a granulite facies terrain, central Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica

Abstract

40Ar/39Ar geochronological data on hornblende, biotite and K-feldspar provide constraints on the cooling path experienced by a high-grade metamorphic complex from the Muhlig–Hofmannfjella and Filchnerfjella (6–8°E), central Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, during the late Neoproterozoic-early Palaeozoic Pan–African orogeny. Hornblende ages yield c. 481 Ma, biotite ages range from c. 466 Ma to c. 435 Ma, whereas K-feldspar ages of the gneisses are c. 437 Ma. The 40Ar/39Ar data suggest initial cooling at a rate of ~10 °C/Myr between 481 and 465 Ma, followed by a lower cooling rate of ~6 °C/Myr during the subsequent c. 30 million years. The K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar ages place a lower time limit on the duration of the exhumation, by the time of thermal relaxation to a stable continental geotherm. The 40Ar/39Ar data reflecting cooling indicate tectonic exhumation related to orogenic collapse during a later phase of the Pan–African orogeny.