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Abstract
Field relationships and geochemistry indicate granitoid plutons of the Dry Valleys area comprise at least three petrogenetically distinct suites. The older Dry Valleys 1a (DV1a) suite, comprising the Bonney, Catspaw, Denton, Cavendish, and Wheeler Plutons and hornblende‐biotite orthogneisses, and Dry Valleys 1b (DV1b) suite, comprising the Hedley, Valhalla, St Johns, Dun, Calkin, and Suess Plutons, biotite granitoid dikes and biotite orthogneisses, were emplaced before prominent swarms of Vanda mafic and felsic dikes. Both the DV1a and DV1b suites are time transgressive, with older intrusions in each suite being emplaced during the later stages of deformation of the Koettlitz Group. Younger granitoids that postdate the majority of the Vanda dikes include: the Dry Valleys 2 (DV2) suite, comprising the Pearse and Nibelungen Plutons plus several smaller, unnamed plugs; and the Harker, Swinford, Orestes, and Brownworth Plutons with identical field relationships and enclaves but distinct chemistries.
Chemical characteristics and limited Rb‐Sr isotopic dating indicate plutonism before c. 500 Ma was dominated by the Cordilleran I‐type DV1a suite, inferred to have developed during melting above a west‐dipping subduction zone along the Antarctic Craton margin. The chemical characteristics of the DV1b suite indicate large‐scale melting of a quartzo‐feldspathic protolith lacking residual plagioclase, but containing refractory garnet. Potential DV1b suite source rocks include metamorphosed immature sediments, possibly underplated along the subduction zone associated with DV1a magmatism, or older granitoid orthogneisses. Major DV1b plutonism at 490 Ma marks the end of subduction‐related plutonism in southern Victoria Land. Younger DV2 alkali‐calcic, Caledonian I‐type plutonism is inferred to have formed in response to uplift and extension between 480 and 455 Ma.
Lack of DV2 suite correlatives and Vanda mafic and felsic dikes in northern Victoria Land suggests significantly different tectonomagmatic histories along the early Paleozoic Antarctic Craton margin.
