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Evolution of Antarctic prospective sedimentary basins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2004

V.L. Ivanov
Affiliation:
SEVMORGEOLOGIA, 120 Moika, Leningrad 190121, USSR

Abstract

No less than 15–20 sedimentary basins are now known on the Antarctic continental landmass and surrounding continental shelves. Reconstruction of their tectonic and stratigraphic evolution is a specialized task. Owing to the polar position of the continent, the Pacific and Atlantic global geostructures are closely spaced there and the interplay between them is strong enough to result in hybridization of the characteristic tectonic features of the various basins. The present morphostructure of the southern polar region of the Earth is characterized by a prominent circumpolar zoning. Therefore, the sedimentary basins form a gigantic ring along the continental margin, including both the shelf proper and the edge of the continent. Within the ring, the basins are associated with different types of margins successively replacing each other, from the Mesozoic magmatic are in the Pacific segment to the classic passive margin off East Antarctica. The formation of the sedimentary basins in the Antarctic segment of the Pacific mobile belt was a part of a single process of geosynclinal development, whereas on the craton flank the process was superposed on the continental structures by rifting during Gondwana fragmentation. During post-break-up tectonism, continental glaciation played an important part in the formation of the sedimentary basins.

Type
Papers—Earth Sciences and Glaciology
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1989

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Footnotes

[This paper was translated by R.V. Fursenko from the original Russian text, entitled Osobennosti evolyutsii potentsial 'no neftegazonosnykh osadochnykh basseinov Antarktidy, and published in Geologo-geofizichskie issledovaniya v Antarktike, ed. V.L. Ivanov & G.E. Grikurov, Leningrad: Northern Research Corporation for Marine Geology (SEVMORGEOLOGIA), Ministry of Geology of the USSR, 75–87.]