New aerogeophysical view of the Antarctic Peninsula: more pieces, less puzzle

New airborne geophysical data reveal subglacial imprints of crustal growth of the Antarctic Peninsula by Mesozoic arc magmatism and terrane accretion along the paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. Potential field signatures indicate that the Antarctic Peninsula batholith is a composite magmatic arc terrane comprising two distinct arcs, separated by a >1500 km-long suture zone, similar to the Peninsular Ranges batholith in southern and Baja California. Aeromagnetic, aerogravity and geological data suggest that a mafic Early Cretaceous western arc was juxtaposed against a more felsic eastern arc which, in mid-Cretaceous times, was intruded by highly magnetic tonalitic/granodioritic plutons of island arc affinity. Suturing of the two arcs against the Gondwana margin caused the mid-Cretaceous Palmer Land orogenic event. Convergence and suturing may have been driven by two subduction zones or, alternatively, by a decrease in slab dip, leading to an inboard migration of the arc, as in California.