Project information
Project aim
The assembly and amalgamation of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana from it’s constituent crustal components occurred over an extended period of Earth’s history. In East Antarctica, once part of Gondwana, geologists have recognised that major tectonic events, ~1000 and ~500 million years ago, played a significant role in the formation of Gondwana. Preliminary isotopic data from the margin of the Archaean Vestfold Hills Complex, Prydz Bay, supports the possibility that another major period of crustal assembly occurred at ~750 million years ago. This study will further explore those preliminary findings to assess the significance of this geological event. This will result in improved tectonic and temporal frameworks of the geological evolution of the Vestfold Hills region, and will help to refine current regional models describing the assembly and stabilisation of the East Antarctic fragment of the Gondwana supercontinent.