Brittle faulting in the Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica: Cretaceous transtensional tectonics related to the break-up of Gondwana

Abstract

The Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf occupies a narrow NNE-SSW-orientated fault-bound depression referred to as the Lambert Graben. Deep faults associated with this structure are recognised geophysically, and are interpreted to extend at least 700 km inland from the Antarctic coast. Kinematic and palaeostress data from quartz- and calcite-bearing faults, inferred to represent the surface expression of these deeper structures, suggest that a single faulting event occurred in response to NW-SE-directed extension, oblique to the axis of the graben. The bulk of the movement along these faults was dextral strike slip, accommodating components of both normal and reverse offset. In the northern Prin..