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Whole rock and mineral compositions of volcanic rocks collected during the Norwegian Polarsirkel expedition (1978/79) to the volcanic istand of Bovetøya (close to the Bouvet Triple Junction) are discussed and compared with previously published data from the island. The rock types, hawaiite, benmoreite, and peralkaline trachyte and rhyolite (comendite) are related to each other by crystal fractionation processes. The trace element and radiogenic isotope signatures displayed by the Bouvetøya rocks are those of a moderately enriched oceanic island suite. On several isotope plots Bouvetøya rocks fall on or close to mixing lines between the euriched EM-l and HIMU mantle components. Mixing between depleted morb mantle (DMM) and euriched components is not likely. Thus, Bouvetøya displays a typical plume signature.

The island Peter I Oy is located in the Bellinghausen Sea 400 km off the coast of West Antarctica. It is situated at the transition between oceanic and contintental crust close to a former transform fault, the Tharp fracture zone. The island is completely volcanic, consisting of predominantly alkali basalt and hawaiite and some more evolved rocks. Sampling done by the Aurora expedition in 1987 has made dating and detailed petrological studies possible. The island appears to be much younger (< 0.5 Ma) than previously believed. However, the volcanic activity responsible for this oceanic island may have lasted for 10-20 Ma. Volcanic activity at the island thus took place at the same time as post-subduction rift-related volcanism took place along the Antarctic Peninsula and in Marie Byrd Land. However, the petrologic data indicate that this may be coincidental and that the Peter I Oy activity is independent and related to transtensional rifting along the Tharp fracture zone.

Peter I Øy is located in the Bellinghausen Sea, 400 km NE of Thurston Island, West Antarctica. It is a Pleistocene volcanic island situated adjacent to a former tranform fault on the continental rise of the presently passive margin between the Pacific and Antarctica. New K-Ar age determinations ranging from 0.1 to 0.35 Ma show that the volcanism responsible for this island took place at the same time as post-subduction, rift-related volcanism occurred in the nearby Marie Byrd Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The rocks of the island are alkalic basalt and hawaiite, benmoreite and trachyte. The basic tocks typically contain phenocrysts of olivine (Fo61–84), diopsidic augite, and plagioclase (ca. An60). Small xenoliths are present and consist of mantle-type spinel lherzolite, cumulate clinopyroxenite and gabbro and felsic inclusions that consist of medium-grained strained quartz, plagioclase, and abundant colorless glass. Chemically, the basic rocks are characterized by rather high MgO (7.8–10.2 wt.%) and TiO2 (3.1–3.7 wt.%) and relatively low CaO (8.4–9.5 wt.%) contents. They have steep REE patterns, [(La/Yb)N = 20] with HREE only 5 x chrondrite. Y and Sc are almost constant at relatively low levels. Compatible trace elements such as Ni and Cr show considerable variation (190–300 and 150–470 ppm, respectively.), whereas V shows only little variation. Sr and Nd isotope ratios vary slightly with 87Sr/86Sr averaging 0.70388 and 143Nd/144Nd 0.512782, both typical for ocean island volcanism. Lead isotope ratios are consistently high in basalts; 206Pb/204Pb = 19.194, 207Pb/204Pb = 15.728 and 208Pb/204Pb = 39.290, whereas benmoreïte is somewhat less radiogenic. Oxygen isotope analyses average ‰ . Incompatible trace elements vary by a factor of 1.5–2.0 within the range of the basic rocks. It is proposed that the incompatible trace-element variations represent different degrees (<10%) of partial melting, and that these melts were later modified by minor ( ‰ ) olivine and spinel fractionation. The very small variation in Y (and Sc) and the very fractionated REE pattern indicate that the source had an Y- and HREE-rich residual phase, most probably garnet. Furthermore, it is suggested that the source was slightly hydrous and that melting took place at 18–20 kbar. Trachyte was derived by multiphase fractionation of ne-normative basalts, and benmoreite from hy-normative parental liquids. The rocks of Peter I Øy are generally of the same type and age as those outcropping in extensional regimes on the nearby continent, and therefore, these occurrences may be related to each other in some way. However, the Peter I Øy rocks are considerably more radiogenic in strontium and less radiogenic in neodymium than the rocks of the Antarctic Peninsula and Marie Byrd Land. Possible explanations are that Peter I Øy represent asthenospheric hot spot activity, or transtensional rifting as subduction ceased.

Mineral and whole rocks analyses of 12 Jurassic basalt dykes from Vestfjella, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, are presented, and their genesis discussed. On the basis of major oxides and norms the basalts may be classified as olivine and quartz tholeiites. Plotted in the Plag Cpx (Opx + 4Q) and Ol Plag Q projections, the compositions are most compatible with fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene and plagioclase from a basalt liquid at very low pressure. The ratios between strongly incompatible elements such as Rb, Cs, Zr, Hf, Ta and Th vary considerably, and petrographic mixing calculations give poor fits with respect to Rb, Cs, Ta, Th and light REE. Initial 87Sr/86 Sr ratios range between 0.70347 and 0.70687, and show no correlation with Rb/Sr or any other SIE ratios. The trace element and Sr isotope data thus do not suggest any simple cogenetic petrogenetic model. It is concluded that the basalt melts most plausibly have been contaminated by, or mixed with anatectic melts of crustal material, rather than reflecting mantle heterogeneity.

Sedimentary and magmatic rocks of Late Proterozoic to Late Paleozoic age, from the southern half of Ellsworth Mountains are described. Basic volcanic rocks, mainly agglomeratic, occur abundantly in the lower part of the succession, in the Minaret Group, and in the lower part of the Heritage Group, but are not recorded in the upper part of the Heritage Group. Due to this lithostratigraphic contrast a new classification is proposed: the Heritage Group including the Middle Horseshoe Formation and the Edson Hills Formation. A stratigraphic gap is evident above the Edson Hills Formation and a separate unit--the Dunbar Ridge Formation--is proposed. This formation is of Middle-Upper Cambrian age, with trilobite-bearing limestones. The structure is governed by a major anticline with a NW plunge in the north but almost horizontal in the south. Contrast of fold intensity and fold style below the youngest exposed unit, the Whiteout Conglomerate and a weathered surface above the Crashite Quartzite suggests a late Paleozoic deformation phase. Two phases of magmatism are distinguished. The pre-Middle Cambrian magmatism is dominantly K-alkalic and suggests the beginning of block subsidence at the early stage of a rift tectonics on a continental crust. The presumptive Late Paleozoic magmatism is N-alkalic and tholeiitic, and occurred after the main deformation; however the rocks were regionally metamorphosed in the actinolite-greenschist facies probably in late Paleozoic time. This magmatism is considered to represent an advanced stage of block tectonics. (Auth. mod.)

On the coastal slope of the great inland ice of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, a number of mountain peaks rises above the ice cap. The central part of the nunatak area consists of very coarse­ grained hornblende-biotite granite, poor in quartz and rich in porphyroblastic microcline crystals. It is cut by foliated or banded gneisses consisting essentially of the same minerals. The granite clearly intersects the gneiss, and both are cut by more fine-grained granite veins as well as by pegmatite. In some places the gneiss contains red garnet crystals, hut with one possible exception it is not proper chamockite.