Volcanism in Antarctica: 200 Million Years of Subduction, Rifting and Continental Break-up
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

This memoir is the first to review all of Antarctica's volcanism between 200 million years ago and the Present. The region is still volcanically active. The volume is an amalgamation of in-depth syntheses, which are presented within distinctly different tectonic settings. Each is described in terms of (1) the volcanology and eruptive palaeoenvironments; (2) petrology and origin of magma; and (3) active volcanism, including tephrochronology. Important volcanic episodes include: astonishingly voluminous mafic and felsic volcanic deposits associated with the Jurassic break-up of Gondwana; the construction and progressive demise of a major Jurassic to Present continental arc, including back-arc alkaline basalts and volcanism in a young ensialic marginal basin; Miocene to Pleistocene mafic volcanism associated with post-subduction slab-window formation; numerous Neogene alkaline volcanoes, including the massive Erebus volcano and its persistent phonolitic lava lake, that are widely distributed within and adjacent to one of the world's major zones of lithospheric extension (the West Antarctic Rift System); and very young ultrapotassic volcanism erupted subglacially and forming a world-wide type example (Gaussberg).
Chapter 4.1a Antarctic Peninsula: volcanology
Correspondence: jls55@leicester.ac.uk
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Published:May 27, 2021
Abstract
The Antarctic Peninsula is distinguished by late Neogene volcanic activity related to a series of northerly younging ridge crest–trench collisions and the progressive opening of ‘slab windows’ in the subjacent mantle. The outcrops were amongst the last to be discovered in the region, with many occurrences not visited until the 1970s and 1980s. The volcanism consists of several monogenetic volcanic fields and small isolated centres. It is sodic alkaline to tholeiitic in composition, and ranges in age between 7.7 Ma and present. No eruptions have been observed (with the possible, but dubious, exception of Seal Nunataks in 1893) but very young isotopic ages for some outcrops suggest that future eruptions are a possibility. The eruptions were overwhelmingly glaciovolcanic and the outcrops have been a major source of information on glaciovolcano construction. They have also been highly influential in advancing our understanding of the configuration of the Plio-Pleistocene Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. However, our knowledge is hindered by a paucity of modern, precise isotopic ages. In particular, there is no obvious relationship between the age of ridge crest–trench collisions and the timing of slab-window volcanism, a puzzle that may only be resolved by new dating.
- Antarctic ice sheet
- Antarctic Peninsula
- Antarctica
- breccia
- Cenozoic
- cinder cones
- eruptions
- igneous rocks
- landforms
- lapilli
- lava
- lithostratigraphy
- mantle
- Neogene
- outcrops
- pillow lava
- plate tectonics
- Pleistocene
- Pliocene
- pyroclastics
- Quaternary
- scoria
- sea-floor spreading
- spreading centers
- subduction
- Tertiary
- tholeiitic composition
- tuff
- volcanic features
- volcanic fields
- volcanic rocks
- volcanism
- South Shetland Trench
- James Ross Island Volcanic Group
- Bellingshausen Sea Volcanic Group