Solid Earth

Extremely low long-term erosion rates around the Gamburtsev Mountains in interior East Antarctica

  1. S. E. Cox1,3,
  2. S. N. Thomson2,
  3. P. W. Reiners2,
  4. S. R. Hemming1,
  5. T. van de Flierdt1,4

Article first published online: 20 NOV 2010

DOI: 10.1029/2010GL045106

Issue

Geophysical Research Letters

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Information

How to Cite

Cox, S. E., S. N. Thomson, P. W. Reiners, S. R. Hemming, and T. van de Flierdt (2010), Extremely low long-term erosion rates around the Gamburtsev Mountains in interior East Antarctica, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L22307, doi:10.1029/2010GL045106.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth Institute at Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

  3. 3

    Now at Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA.

  4. 4

    Now at Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 20 NOV 2010
  2. Article first published online: 20 NOV 2010
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 4 OCT 2010
  4. Manuscript Revised: 30 SEP 2010
  5. Manuscript Received: 12 AUG 2010

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Keywords:

  • thermochronology;
  • East Antarctica;
  • Gamburtsev Mountains;
  • erosion rates;
  • Prydz Bay;
  • Lambert Graben

[1] The high elevation and rugged relief (>3 km) of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (GSM) have long been considered enigmatic. Orogenesis normally occurs near plate boundaries, not cratonic interiors, and large-scale tectonic activity last occurred in East Antarctica during the Pan-African (480–600 Ma). We sampled detrital apatite from Eocene sands in Prydz Bay at the terminus of the Lambert Graben, which drained a large pre-glacial basin including the northern Gamburtsev Mountains. Apatite fission-track and (U-Th)/He cooling ages constrain bedrock erosion rates throughout the catchment. We double-dated apatites to resolve individual cooling histories. Erosion was very slow, averaging 0.01–0.02 km/Myr for >250 Myr, supporting the preservation of high elevation in interior East Antarctica since at least the cessation of Permian rifting. Long-term topographic preservation lends credence to postulated high-elevation mountain ice caps in East Antarctica since at least the Cretaceous and to the idea that cold-based glaciation can preserve tectonically inactive topography.

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