AFI 02/37_02 - Identifying terranes in the Antarctic Peninsula using primitive basalt dykes as lithospheric probes - Geochemical and petrographic analysis of rock samples, 2001/02

The chemistry of mafic volcanic rocks and minor intrusions erupted on continents can be used to define the composition and history of subcontinental asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle domains. We have produced new and collated published data for Antarctica in order to identify mantle domains beneath the continent. Suitable material archived at the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, the result of previous geological research, was sampled and prepared for petrographic and geochemical analysis in the intervening period between field collection and sample arrival in the United Kingdom. Field information, petrography and raw geochemical data obtained from XRF (X-ray fluorescence), ICPMS (Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer), TIMS (Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer), Ar/Ar analysis and Electron Microprobe analysis of rock samples collected from Palmer Land and Graham Land was used to define a geochemical profile of crust/mantle architecture beneath the An
tarctic Peninsula.