Age, Correlation, and Provenance of the Neoproterozoic Skelton Group, Antarctica: Grenville Age Detritus on the Margin of East Antarctica

Abstract

Detrital zircon U‐Pb ages constrain the age and provenance of the Skelton Group in southern Victoria Land, one of several Proterozoic‐Cambrian metasedimentary units that form basement to the Ross Orogen in East Antarctica. The age of the youngest detrital zircons combined with previous dating of crosscutting intrusive rocks indicates deposition of the northern and southern parts of the Skelton Group between ca. 1050–535 and ca. 950–551 Ma, respectively. Many zircons in the northern part of the Skelton Group crystallized after partial melting during upper amphibolite facies metamorphism at ca. 505–480 Ma, although older ca. 550‐Ma metamorphic zircon rims indicate an earlier episode of high‐grade metamorphism. Detrital zircon ages from the Skelton Group are dominated by ca. 1300–950‐Ma ages similar to those in the Beardmore Group in East Antarctica and the Adelaidean succession of South Australia, suggesting that these rocks are generally correlative. Zircons that crystallized at ca. 1050 Ma form the major age population of the northern Skelton Group, while a broader range of Neoproterozoic zircons form significant components in other sediments deposited on the margin of East Antarctica–Australia at this time, indicating a close proximity to exposed Grenville age crust. Inferred basement rocks of Grenville age beneath the Ross Orogen in East Antarctica (represented by a potential $$1049\pm 11$$‐Ma orthogneiss), Paleozoic cover in eastern Australia, and ice in Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica are potential sources for the Grenville age component in these Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks.