& OReilly, S. Y. Archean crustal evolution in the northern Yilgarn Craton: UPb and Hf-isotope evidence from detrital zircons. Budd Land: 10916' E to 11533' E An assessment of monazite from the Itamb pegmatite district for use as UPb isotope reference material for microanalysis and implications for the origin of the Moacyr monazite. Recent isotopic and geochemical data from drillhole samples in these Australian provinces fingerprint a distinctively juvenile isotopic character, similar to the central Australian Musgrave Province, that has been interpreted to represent c. 1950 Ma oceanic crust reworked by a series of accretionary tectonic events throughout the Mesoproterozoic, involving significant mantle input14,15,16. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Casey is 3,880 kilometres (2,410 mi) due south of Perth, Western Australia . The age of the single detrital monazite core also further constrains the maximum deposition age of the sandstones to 103816Ma. CAS Other discoveries in geography included mapping large sections of Australia for the first time and helping to chart many of the islands of the South Pacific. Fifteen authigenic monazite grains analysed in sample PRR-21185 yield apparent 232Th/208Pb ages ranging between c. 639490Ma (Fig. Privacy Statement Aitken, A. R. A. et al. Before this American expedition, only small, rocky outcrops of Antarctica had been sighted. Situated offshore the Wilkes Land continental margin, East Antarctica, the sediments from Site U1356 have archived the dynamics of an ice sheet that is today mostly grounded below sea level. 1). 1a) occupies the region west of the Totten Glacier, including the well-studied outcrops of the Windmill Islands to the west of Law Dome8,9. However, UPb dating of detrital zircon and in-situ authigenic monazite constrain a much older Neoproterozoic (c. 1038633Ma) depositional age range for at least part of the basin. The feature has been described as a volcanic structure, an igneous intrusion, an ancient igneous diapir, a subglacial sedimentary basin, a glacially eroded subglacial valley, a tectonic feature and a meteorite impact crater. Zircon chemistry and magma mixing, SE China: In-situ analysis of Hf isotopes, Tonglu and Pingtan igneous complexes. Later, in 1821, American sealer Nathaniel Palmer discovered the Antarctic Peninsula (also called the Palmer Peninsula). Hf isotopic analyses from the c. 1145Ma zircon population yield Hfi ratios in the range 0.282080.28214 (Fig. This texture, together with the relatively high Th (mostly ~10,000ppm) and low U (mostly <100ppm), suggests the analysed monazite grains are authigenic and likely formed due to an interaction with hydrothermal fluids during or after deposition30. Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to lead an expedition that circumnavigated the, Robert Ballard 4). 6). The French, British, and American expeditions of the 1840s sailed south in the hope of discovering a Terra Australis laden with mineral treasures, only to find towering glaciers and deathly cold. Gondwana Research 29, 136152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2014.10.019 (2016). & Rignot, E. MEaSUREs Antarctic Boundaries for IPY 20072009 from Satellite Radar, Version 2. spots 001, 006) or diffuse banded (e.g. Kosteleck, Jan Casey Station - Wikipedia Google Scholar. Whats the point? Correspondence to We use the most recent magnetic anomaly map of the Antarctic (ADMAP-2)60 and the comparable Australian dataset available from Geoscience Australia in conjunction with geological data to match the aeromagnetic signature of the Coompana/Madura provinces and interior Wilkes Land in the Gondwana full-fit (c. 160Ma) plate reconstruction framework of Aitken et al.7 and identify broad basement domains and lineaments. Google Scholar. Comment: Hf-isotope heterogeneity in zircon 91500. Chronological List of Antarctic Expeditions and Related Historical Events. China intends to exploit the continent fully once the current Antarctic Treaty expires in 2048, if not sooner. If Antarctic glaciers are already melting, and the consequent sea-level rise threatens to inundate coastal cities across the globe, why would any government make plans to exacerbate global warming by exploiting fossil fuel reserves in Antarctica? Precambrian Research 206207, 5271 (2012). ( 2009) described the possibility of existence of a huge impact crater basin. Later, realizing that Dumont d'Urville had logged the same date, Wilkes changed his logs to indicate the sighting took place on January 16th. After offering the leadership position to a number of well-qualified candidates (all of whom turned the opportunity down for one reason or another), Wilkes was asked to lead the Expedition of Exploration, in spite of his relative lack of sea experience. The intervening region (West Mawson Craton of Aitken et al.11), underlying most of the combined Vanderford-Totten-MUIS continental ice sheet, is only characterised by sparse legacy geological data12,13 and remains vastly underexplored. The Forgotten American Explorer Who Discovered Huge Parts of Antarctica Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen (1778-1852) discovered some small islands near Antarctica and an American named Davis actually landed on the continent. In fact, at one point Charles Darwin (1809-1882), when writing a monograph on barnacles, requested the loan of "some of the species (of barnacles) collected during your great expedition." With four Antarctic stations already, China is now in the advanced planning stages for a fifth stationthis one to be located in the heart of downtown Antarctica, on an island in the Ross Sea adjacent to McMurdo. Vermeesch, P. On the visualisation of detrital age distributions. Morrissey, L. J. et al. Abbreviations are: AmphAmphibole; BtBiotite; KfsK-feldspar; MagMagnetite; OpxOrthopyroxene; PlagPlagioclase; QtzQuartz. Source of zircon in world-class heavy mineral placer deposits of the Cenozoic Eucla Basin, southern Australia from LA-ICPMS UPb geochronology. As this was the time of the Cold War, there was considerable concern by the United States and Australia about Russian activity in Antarctica. The Chick Island granodiorite pluton (sample CI-814A2) has a crystallisation age of c. 1148Ma and Hfi isotopic values consistent with the emplacement age and Hf signature of the Moodini Supersuite in the Coompana and Madura provinces14, as well as isotopically-similar igneous rocks found in the Wilkes Province (e.g. . Consequently, there was a 'back down' until 1961 when the station came under exclusive ANARE control. Thirty-six UPb analyses were collected from 31 grains across the spectrum of internal domains observed under CL. Jackson, S. E., Pearson, N. J., Griffin, W. L. & Belousova, E. A. 1946 - 47. A plan to realise a new station Casey Repstat (Replacement station) was developed on the other side of the bay. The international glass standard NIST610 was used as a primary standard for trace element quantification assuming stoichiometric Ce in monazite and as a primary standard for the 207Pb/206Pb ratio correction factor for monazite. [24-04-2018] (2017). Many objects remain embedded in the ice. Pollen grains found inside show how vegetation on the continent changed . Geophysical Research Letters 45, 64376449, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078153 (2018). Geophysical Research Abstracts Vol. Wilkes Land is featured prominently in the 1998 film The X-Files: Fight the Future. Headland, Robert. Wilkes was seen to be strategically located because of its proximity to the south magnetic pole. Most zircon grains in the two main groups display oscillatory zoning (Fig. Two-sample KolmogorovSmirnov (K-S) tests were performed on the detrital zircon age data using the online statistics calculator of Kirkman50 to determine if the samples were derived from different sources by comparing the distance between the cumulative age distribution curves. Recent tectonic reconstructions of Gondwana that reconcile geological and geophysical signatures from the conjugate Australian and Antarctic plates revealed the presence of three large-scale Proterozoic basement provinces in Wilkes Land that accreted during supercontinent assembly7. Griffin et al.51 describe the methodology in detail. These errors did nothing to undermine the substance of Wilkess discoveries, yet Ross and the British Admiralty built a public case against the American claimwith great success. The zircon Hfi data from the sandstone erratic samples are dominated by positive values in each of the main detrital populations reflecting a significant mantle contribution in the source magmas. Portuguese mariner, explorer Elements measured include 27Al, 31P, 43Ca, 140Ce, 172Yb, 202Hg, 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb, 232Th and 238U. 30 Jun. The study region extends to about 900 km from the coast and is approximately 1600 km across; an area of about 1.4 10 6 km 2. spots 002, 021r) or more diffusely zoned rims (e.g. 2023 Smithsonian Magazine [1] History [ edit] It was discovered by the United States Victoria Land Traverse of 1959-1960. from Barcelona, sourounded by vinyards. This is further supported by the lack of Pan-African aged (c. 600500Ma) detrital zircon which instead are consistently present in younger Australian Palaeozoic to Cenozoic sedimentary deposits33,34. Scientific Reports To be sure, the mapping of the Earth was far from complete, but its broad outlines were now known. Ice flow of the antarctic ice sheet. Lithos 113, 570582, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2009.06.028 (2009). Eight authigenic monazite analyses from sample PRR-27976 yield ages ranging between c. 627449Ma (Fig. (Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, 1967). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975. The Great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. Barham, M. et al. 7). (Geological Survey of Western Australia, 1970). Advertising Notice 3 with the addition of >1500Ma zircon from Gawler Craton37. Buried but preserved: The Proterozoic Arubiddy Ophiolite, Madura Province, Western Australia. Get the latest Science stories in your inbox. Five older analyses corresponding to dark CL cores reveal high concentrations of U (4193565 ppm) with individual apparent 207Pb/206Pb ages spread along Concordia bet]ween c. 1412Ma to c. 1294Ma (Fig. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wilkes-expedition-and-discovery-antarctica, Encountering Tahiti: Samuel Wallis and the Voyage of the Dolphin, Overview: Exploration and Discovery 1700-1799, Overview: Exploration and Discovery 1800-1899, The First Maritime Circumnavigation of the Globe, George Vancouver Charts the Pacific Coast of North America from California to Alaska, Nils A. E. Nordenskild Discovers the Northeast Passage. Vermeesch, P. IsoplotR: A free and open toolbox for geochronology. Along with an entire fleet, they headed down to the coast of Southern America, into the Pacific Ocean. He 3c) with oscillatory (e.g. Photo: Alan Campbell-Drury US Navy personnel constructed the main part of Wilkes in 16 days, unloading 11,000 tons of material and supplies. Zircon grains in sample CI-810A are 100200m long and have aspect ratios that vary from 1:21:4. Antarctica Exploration Timeline - American Polar Society . Rock chips for in situ UThPb monazite dating were mounted with epoxy resin in ~12mm thick x 25mm diameter steel cylinder and polished using a 0.25m diamond polishing lap. This was a huge expedition of 4,700 men, 13 ships (including an aircraft carrier), 19 airplanes, and a large contingent of scientists. The authors declare no competing interests. The expedition's goals would be to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the seas, weather, and lands in the extreme south to give American sailors an advantage over those of other nations when sailing those seas. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Sediment routing and basin evolution in Proterozoic to Mesozoic east Gondwana: A case study from southern Australia. On the detection of the Wilkes Land impact crater - ResearchGate However, the importance of this feature lies not only in determining its origin but by the fact that this part of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin is one of the most prominent regional negative geoid and associated gravity anomalies of the Antarctic continent. In contrast, the Madura Province exhibits overall higher-frequency anomalies with moderate to strong magnetic intensity (0100nT). In Australia, parts of the Coompana and Madura provinces are covered by extensive sedimentary basins, including the Neoproterozoic to Devonian Officer Basin (part of Centralian Superbasin)21 and the Mesozoic Bight and Cenozoic Eucla basins22,23. Wilkesland Crater is the largest known meteorite crater on Earth. Two xenoliths hosted in the granodiorite bedrock (samples CI-810A and CI-814B) have a granitic composition and contain igneous microstructures characterised by a lack of recrystallisation and the presence of interstitial igneous green amphibole. Yao, W., Li, Z.-X., Spencer, C. J. ISSN 2045-2322 (online). This story is adapted from the author's new book Land of Wondrous Cold: The Race to Discover Antarctica and Discover the Secrets of its Ice. However, Magsat, rsted, and CHAMP satellite magnetic observations reveal the thinned crust of the impact . Klokonk, Jaroslav We suggest this suite is likely equivalent to the Moodini Supersuite granites. Paleoceanography and ice sheet variability offshore Wilkes Land Goodge, J. W., Williams, I. S. & Myrow, P. Provenance of Neoproterozoic and lower Paleozoic siliciclastic rocks of the central Ross orogen, Antarctica: Detrital record of rift-, passive-, and active-margin sedimentation. Vanderford, Totten, Moscow University Ice ShelfMUIS) which together have the potential to contribute up to 3m of global sea level rise in a warming climate4. 1. Initial epsilon Hf (Hfi) values (yellow dots) versus probability density plot (yellow fill) and histograms for detrital zircon from the sandstone erratic samples. Zircons are sub-rounded to sub-euhedral, with the majority of grains (~80%) having aspect ratios from 1:21:3 and indicating an overall local sourcing of sediments. In January 1957, Wilkes station was established on the Clark Peninsula by the United States as part of their International Geophysical Year (IGY) program. Aitken et al.11 correlated the Sabrina Sedimentary Basin and the Bight/Eucla basins based on the pre-Gondwanan breakup proximity. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center, https://doi.org/10.5067/AXE4121732AD. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Present-day ice divides and ice-flow directions31,32 indicate that the sandstone erratics were likely eroded from inland areas of the Vanderford ice catchment and transported to their present locations during a former expansion of the Vanderford Glacier24,25 (Fig. Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. In 1842, four years after setting sail, the crew returned to America with an achieved mission. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart, TAS, 7001, Australia, Alessandro Maritati,Jacqueline A. Halpin&Joanne M. Whittaker, ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems and GEMOC, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia, You can also search for this author in Detrital zircon were separated from crushed rocks using heavy liquid separation. In this paper, we analyse geological samples from crystalline basement and sedimentary cover in order to characterise part of the subglacial bedrock of interior Wilkes Land between the Wilkes Province and Mawson Craton. Your email address will not be published. While the gravity patterns used here for comparison refer to impact structures that are an order of magnitude smaller than the Taklamakan Basin, its more comparable Wilkes Land anomaly has. In January 1840, when Wilkes was commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, he charted 1500 miles of the east Antarctic coastline in his flagship U.S.S. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Gondwana Research 19, 335371 (2011). They were to return four years later, having accomplished their goals in the Southern Ocean as well as mapping parts of the Australian coast, a number of South Pacific islands, and large parts of the West Coast of North America. Chemical Geology 424, 3050, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.12.019 (2016). This was the first major voyage of exploration undertaken by the young nation. 1a,b); our new UPbHf zircon data provide insight into its crustal affinity and a test of the tectonic correlation based on aeromagnetic data. A hand-over ceremony was held on 4 February 1959. Record 2016/16. crust at the East Antarctic craton margin: gravity and magnetic interpretation along a traverse cross the Wilkes Subglacial Basin region, Sombrero uplift above the Altiplano-Puna magma body: evidence of a ballooning mid-crustal diapir, BEDMAP2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica, Diapiric emplacement in the upper crust of a granitic body: the La Bazana granite (SW Spain), Composition and age of the East Antarctic Shield in eastern Wilkes Land determined by proxy from Oligocene-Pleistocene glaciomarine sediment and Beacon Supergroup sandstones, Antarctica, The use of gravity methods to study the underground structure and impact energy of meteorite craters, RADARSAT-1 Antarctic mapping project: change-detection and surface velocity campaign, Crustal architecture of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica, as revealed from airborne gravity data, Topography over the Chicxulub impact crater from shuttle radar topographic mission data, Geological Society of America Special Papers, Past levels and present state of the northern Victoria Land glaciers, Size and morphology of the Chicxulub impact crater, Depth/diameter relations of fresh lunar craters: revision from spacecraft data, Effect of erosion on gravity and magnetic signatures of complex impact structures: geophysical modeling and applications, Aeromagnetic anomalies and structural model of the Chicxulub multiring impact crater, Yucatan, Mexico, A high-quality global gravity field model from CHAMP GPS tracking data and accelerometer (EIGEN-IS), Mesoarchean to Mesoproterozoic evolution of the southern Gawler Craton, South Australia, Anomalies de la pesanteur et profil de la calotte glaciaire Antarctique en Terre Adlie, Comptes Rendus de lAcademie des Sciences, Chicxulub multiring impact basin: size and other characteristics derived from gravity analysis, Radio echo sounding investigations of Wilkes Land, Antarctica, Magnetization in impact structures constraints from numerical modeling and petrophysics, Morphology and scaling of impact craters in granular media, Geophysical studies in Victoria Land, Antarctica, The Wilkes Land Anomaly: evidence for a possible hypervelocity impact crater, Gravity anomalies of the Antarctic lithosphere, Impossible journey: the story of the Victoria Land Traverse 19591960, Antarctica, Origin(s) of Antarcticas Wilkes Subglacial Basin, Impact craterform morphology: the origin of the Mertz and Ninnis glaciers, Antarctica, The effects of crater degradation and target differences on the morphologies of Martian complex craters. We interpolate these data according to a tectonic map of Antarctica using a statistical kriging method. Slma, J. et al. Fingerprinting Proterozoic Bedrock in Interior Wilkes Land, East Antarctica The Wilkes Expedition and the Discovery of Antarctica In one of the incidents that led to scandal, Wilkes initially logged that he first sighted the Antarctic continent on January 19, 1840. Hostname: page-component-6c5869dcc6-gflvg 1c,d). Charles Wilkes barely had time to announce his Antarctic triumph before British rival James Clark Ross (celebrated discoverer of the North Magnetic Pole) began to steal his thunder. Together, these new geological insights into the ice-covered bedrock of Wilkes Land substantially improve correlations of Antarctic and Australian geological elements and provide key constraints on the tectonic architecture of this sector of the East Antarctic Shield and its role in supercontinent reconstructions. GRACE gravity evidence for an impact basin in Wilkes Land, Antarctica The British and French eventually ceded the argument, and corresponding territory, to the United States as the worlds emerging polar power. Geographic Names Information System. & Dutch, R. A. 5) indicates post-depositional interaction with hydrothermal fluids. The Wilkes Expedition and the Discovery of Antarctica Wilkes had originally been built in 1957 for a two-year period. Your Privacy Rights GrandHomme, A., Janots, E., Bosse, V., Seydoux-Guillaume, A. M. & De Asceno Guedes, R. Interpretation of U-Th-Pb in-situ ages of hydrothermal monazite-(Ce) and xenotime-(Y): evidence from a large-scale regional study in clefts from the western alps. Thirty-five UPb analyses were collected from twenty-one zircon grains, including seven grains where both cores and rims were analysed. A single outlier (spot 019) yielding Hfi ratio of 0.28101 and Hfi of 36.74 was excluded from the interpretation. 1b). 3a). During the first part of the nineteenth century, American whaling and sealing ships were actively sailing every ocean, gradually depleting stocks of these animals near the United States and, eventually, around South America, too. 3c) and yield Hfi ratios in the range 0.281910.28195 (Fig. Seabed core reveals how lush Antarctica changed to icy desert Reid, A., Keeling, J., Boyd, D., Belousova, E. & Hou, B. Wilkes station - Australian Antarctic Program A study reported in Nature Climate Change on May 5, 2014[3] says the marine ice trapped in the basin is at risk of melting over the next 200 years. Location of samples used in this study is given in Supplementary TableS1. 2023 Today In History. Mounts were polished to half grain thickness to expose grain centres, carbon coated and imaged using a cathodoluminescence (CL) detector on a FEI Quanta 600 Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) at Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania, to identify compositional domains for analysis. It was discovered by the United States Victoria Land Traverse of 19591960. also charted and explored large sections of the North American Pacific coast, the Philippine Islands, Hawaii (then called the Sandwich Islands), and Fiji. S1). Render date: 2023-07-08T06:13:58.192Z Monazite grains from each of the three sandstone erratic samples were investigated for in situ UThPb analyses following the analytical procedures reported in Halpin et al.55 on the same LA-ICP-MS system used to collect UPb detrital zircon ages. The image of a rusting, outdated American station alongside a gleaming, state-of-the-art Chinese facility will communicate more clearly than a hundred polar policy papers the reality of the power transfer already under way in Antarctica, where Chinas investments in icebreakers, communications hardware, and station infrastructure dwarfs that of other nations, including the United States. Lowry, D. C. Geology of the Western Australian part of the Eucla Basin. Repstat was commissioned in 1969 and Wilkes was closed. Article The improved geometrical correlation between basement provinces of Wilkes Land and southern Australia will be fundamental in further understanding the Mesoproterozoic evolution of Australo-Antarctica and as such, inform plate tectonic models for the amalgamation of Nuna and Rodinia and the configuration of Gondwana. UPb zircon ages were collected at the University of Tasmania, Australia using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). However, regardless of zonation, concordant analyses yield a 207Pb/206Pb weighted average age of 114811Ma (n=34, mean square of weighted deviates [MSWD]=1.34), interpreted to represent the crystallisation age of this sample (Fig. Coompana Province and Musgrave Province)39. The new station of Casey Repstat (Replacement Station) was developed on the other, southern, side of Newcomb Bay, about two kilometers across the bay south of Wilkes. Zircon CL images were used to ensure that Hf isotope analyses were contained within the same domain analysed for UPb. Zircons from the Mud Tank carbonatite locality were analysed together with the samples in each session to monitor accuracy of the results. Wilkes Land - Wikiwand