28 June 2018, Volume 29 Issue 2

    

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  Contents of Vol. 29 No. 2

  Editorial Office

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 0-0.

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  Contents Vol.29 No.2 June 2018
  
  Special Issue : Advances in Antarctic Geoscience Based on Chinese Research
  
  Foreword
  
  Reviews
  
  Progress of Antarctic meteorite survey and research in China
  MIAO Bingkui, XIA Zhipeng, ZHANG Chuantong, OU Ronglin & SUN Yunlong
  
  Progress in Chinese Antarctic geodetic remote sensing
  E Dongchen, WANG Zemin & ZHANG Shengkai
  
  Articles
  Distribution domains of the Pan-African event in East Antarctica and adjacent areas
  REN Liudong, ZONG Shi, WANG Yanbin & LI Chong
  
  U-Th-Pb monazite and Sm-Nd dating of high-grade rocks from the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica: further evidence for a Pan-African-aged monometamorphic terrane
  LIU Xiaochun, LING Xiaoxiao & JAHN Bor-ming
  
  Metamorphism and zircon U-Pb dating of high-pressure pelitic granulites from glacial moraines in the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica
  CHEN Longyao, WANG Wei, LIU Xiaochun & ZHAO Yue
  
  SHRIMP U-Pb zircon geochronology of granites from Sansom Island, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica
  CUI Yingchun, LIU Xiaochun, LIU Chenguang & LIU Jianhui
  
  Letter
  Preliminary investigation of rubidium distribution in the Grove Mountains area, East Antarctica
  LI Yan & HUANG Feixin
  
  Inviting Contributions to Special Issues in 2019
  
  Cover picture: Zakharoff Ridge, one of the 64 nunataks of Grove Mountains in East Antarctica (paper by Y. Li and F. X. Huang, page 144)
  
Foreword
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  Foreword: A review of China’s geological and geophysical research in Antarctica over three decades

  Zhao Yue, Liu Xiaochun, Ren Liudong, Liu Xiaohan

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 1-1.

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  A workshop was held in May 2017 at the Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing to review the contribution of the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) over 30 years. This was attended by 11 scientists, and the papers presented have resulted in this special issue of Advances in Polar Science (APS) entitled “Advances in Antarctic geoscience based on Chinese research”. This thematic issue of APS brings together a selection of papers from attendees at the workshop, along with two related papers reviewing advances in China’s Antarctic meteorite survey and research, and Antarctic geodetic remote sensing. Another two solicited papers will be presented in subsequent issues of APS. China’s geological and geophysical survey and research in Antarctica over three decades is briefly reviewed below.
Reviews
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  Progress of Antarctic meteorite survey and research in China

  MIAO Bingkui, XIA Zhipeng, ZHANG Chuantong, OU Ronglin & SUN Yunlong

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 61-77. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00061

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  More than 50000 meteorite samples have been collected in Antarctica since 1969, making meteorite surveys a very important aspect of Antarctic expeditions. The Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition has collected more than 12000 meteorites in the Grove Mountains region, where has been confirmed as one of the richest meteorite concentration sites in Antarctica. China, therefore, possesses one of the world’s largest Antarctic meteorite collections and has made substantial contributions to this field of research. We summarize here the Chinese meteorite survey efforts in the Grove Mountains, as well as discuss progress of the classification and investigation of Grove Mountains meteorites. Outlooks are also proposed for the future of Antarctic meteorite work.

  
  
  
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  Progress in Chinese Antarctic geodetic remote sensing

  E Dongchen, WANG Zemin, ZHANG Shengkai

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 78-86. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00078

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  This paper summarizes the progress of the Chinese Antarctic expedition in geodetic remote sensing. It describes the systems for continuous satellite navigation and positioning and the tide gauges that have been established at the Zhongshan and Great Wall stations in Antarctica. Advances in the investigation of plate motion, the gravity field, and sea level change as well as the application of GPS in atmospheric studies are reported. Details of the movements of ice sheets and glaciers, distributions of blue ice and ice crevasses, and mass balance studies based on remote sensing techniques are presented. The use of field, satellite, and photogrammetric data to produce topographic maps is described. Finally, the prospects for further Antarctic surveying and mapping are discussed. In the near future, we will establish a high-precision geodetic datum in the Chinese Antarctic expedition areas, monitor changes of Antarctic snow and ice, and develop a platform for sharing Antarctic resource and environment information.
  
  
Articles
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  Distribution domains of the Pan-African event in East Antarctica and adjacent areas

  REN Liudong, ZONG Shi, WANG Yanbin, LI Chong

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 87-107. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00087

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  The Pan-African event is widely distributed in East Antarctica (EA) craton, including both the coastal regions and interior of the EA. From aspects of the shear zones, granites, pegmatites, time of high-grade metamorphism and detrital zircon age peaks of the downflowing sediments from the inland, the Pan-African event in the EA and adjacent areas in the Gondwana reconstruction, like SE Africa, southern India and SW Australia, was described in the paper. The water or fluid available along the shear zones was responsible for retrogression of the earlier, e.g., Grenville age, high-grade outcrops to later Pan-African amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism. In geochemistry, the granites are generally anorogenic, ocassionally with some gabbros or dolerite dykes, showing sign of bimodal feature. Meanwhile, the event has influenced most isotopic systems, including the U-Pb, Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr and Ar-Ar systems, giving Pan-African apparent ages. Spatially, the Pan-African event is demonstrated from possibly local granitic magmatism, to wider medium-high grade metamorphism, and mostly widespread in resetting for some isotope systems, suggesting the prevailing thermal effect of the event. Before Gondwana formation, local depressions in the EA may have been filled with sediments, implying the initial breakup period of the Rodinia. The later Pan-Gondwana counterrotating cogs shaped the interstitial fold belts between continent blocks and formed a set of shear zones. The mafic underplating in the Gondwana may be responsible for the typical features of the Pan-African event. The event may be an overwhelmingly extensional and transcurrent tectonics in mechanism and is a possible response of the plate movement surrounding the continent swarms in the non-stable interior of the yet consolidated Gondwana.
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  U-Th-Pb monazite and Sm-Nd dating of high-grade rocks from the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica: further evidence for a Pan-African-aged monometamorphic terrane

  LIU Xiaochun, LING Xiaoxiao & JAHN Bor-ming

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 108-117. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00108

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  The Grove Mountains, 400 km south of the Chinese Zhongshan Station, are an inland continuation of the Pan-African-aged (i.e., Late Neoproterozoic/Cambrian) Prydz Belt, East Antarctica. In this paper we carried out a combined U–Th–Pb monazite and Sm–Nd mineral–whole-rock dating on para- and orthogneisses from bedrock in the Grove Mountains. U–Th–Pb monazite dating of a cordierite-bearing pelitic paragneiss yields ages of 523  4 Ma for the cores and 508  6 Ma for the rims. Sm–Nd mineral–whole-rock isotopic analyses yield isochron ages of 536  3 Ma for a coarse-grained felsic orthogneiss and 507  30 Ma for a fine-grained quartzofeldspathic paragneiss. Combined with previously published age data in the Grove Mountains and adjacent areas, the older age of ~530 Ma is interpreted as the time of regional medium- to low-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism, and the younger age of ~510 Ma as the cooling age of the granulite terrane. The absence of evidence for a Grenville-aged (i.e., Late Mesoproterozoic/Early Neoproterozoic) metamorphic event indicates that the Grove Mountains have experienced only a single metamorphic cycle, i.e., Pan-African-aged, which distinguishes them from other polymetamorphic terranes in the Prydz Belt. This will provide important constraints on the controversial nature of the Prydz Belt.
  
  
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  Metamorphism and zircon U-Pb dating of high-pressure pelitic granulites from glacial moraines in the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica

  CHEN Longyao, WANG Wei, LIU Xiaochun & ZHAO Yue

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 118-134. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.000118

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  The Grove Mountains are an inland continuation of the Prydz Belt in East Antarctica. Detailed metamorphic petrological and zircon U-Pb geochronological studies are performed on the high-pressure (HP) pelitic granulites from glacial moraines in the Grove Mountains. The metamorphic peak mineral assemblage of the HP pelitic granulites is characterized by garnet + kyanite + K-feldspar + biotite + plagioclase + quartz, and the subsequent medium-pressure (MP) granulite facies retrogression is characterized by sillimanite replacing kyanite, the formation of the biolite + sillimanite symplectite in the matrix. These mineral assemblages and their P-T estimates based on the P-T pseudosection constructed in MnNCKFMASHT system define a clockwise P-T path involving metamorphic peak of 11.6–13.6 kbar at 817–834°C followed by a near-isothermal decompression of 6.7–7.5 kbar at 806–828°C, comparable with those of associated HP mafic granulites from glacial moraines in the Grove Mountains. Zircon U-Pb dating, coupled with available metamorphic age data obtained for HP mafic granulites, reveals HP metamorphism occurred at 540–545 Ma. Combining the previous research results, the HP pelitic granulites and contemporary HP mafic granulites were widely distributed in glacial moraines from the Grove Mountains, suggesting at least part of the Grove Subglacial Highlands underwent Pan-Afrian HP granulite facies metamorphism, which provides new evidence for a collisional tectonic setting of the Pan-Afrian Prydz Belt.
  
  
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  SHRIMP U-Pb zircon geochronology of granites from Sansom Island, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

  CUI Yingchun, LIU Xiaochun, LIU Chenguang & LIU Jianhui

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 135-143. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00135

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  Sansom Island consists of two low nunataks in Sandefjord Bay, a marginal gulf of Prydz Bay, East Antarctica. These nunataks are composed of two kinds of undeformed biotite granites, and these granites have been dated by ion-microprobe U-Pb zircon geochronology. The zircons from these two samples yield SHRIMP zircon U-Pb concordant ages of 516±5 Ma and 495.8±4.2 Ma, respectively. The results indicate that these granites were emplaced in two pulses in the Cambrian, and further demonstrates the Pan-African event that has overprinted this area. The age of ca. 516 Ma suggests that the undeformed Sansom Island Granite had a different geological history from the Landing Bluff Granite, which contains deformed granite xenoliths dated at ca. 503 Ma, and probably indicates regional variations in the age and intensity of deformation.
Letters
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  Preliminary investigation of rubidium distribution in the Grove Mountains area, East Antarctica

  LI Yan&HUANG Feixin

  Advances in Polar Science. 2018, 29(2): 144-149. https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2018.2.00144

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  We analyzed rock samples from the Grove Mountains in Antarctica to determine the distribution of rubidium (Rb) in that location. We collected samples from the Black Nunataks, Melvoldt Nunataks, Mason Peaks, Zakharoff Ridge, Mount Harding, and the northern Gale Escarpment. Geochemical analysis indicated that in some samples the amount of Rb was higher than 300 ppm. This suggests that rocks from the Grove Mountains are rich in Rb. Based on field observations and previous research, we speculate that mica and potash feldspar from moyite, granite gneiss, and felsic pegmatite are the primary carrier minerals of Rb. However, further research is necessary to confirm this speculation.