Occurrence of ice-rafted erratics and the petrology of the KR1 seamount trail from the Australian-Antarctic Ridge

Abstract

A multi-disciplinary study of the KR1 segment of the Australian-Antarctic Ridge has been conducted since 2011. We present geochemical and age dating results for samples dredged from three sites on the KR1 seamount trail. The majority of the samples are alkaline ocean island basalts with subdominant enriched tholeiites. The samples from the DG05 bathymetric depression include ice-rafted erratics from Antarctica, which consist of gabbro, diabase, various granitoids, volcanic rocks such as trachyte and rhyolite and deformed or undeformed sedimentary rocks. The main provenance of glacial erratics is considered to be the the Ross Sea region. However, Carboniferous to Cretaceous ages of erratics indicate that some of these may originate from the western regions of West Antarctica. Based on the size and topography of the volcanic features and geochemical characteristics of the alkaline ocean island basalts (La/SmN = 2.62-3.88; Tb/YbN = 1.54-2.67) and the enriched tholeiites, the KR1 seamount trail is interpreted to be a submarine hotspot chain that is the product of alkaline volcanic eruption and seafloor spreading.