ECLOGITE AT THE ANTARCTIC PALAEO-PACIFIC ACTIVE MARGIN OF GONDWANA (LANTERMAN RANGE, NORTHERN VICTORIA-LAND, ANTARCTICA)

Well-preserved eclogites were found for the first time in Antarctica, at the Lanterman Range, northern Victoria Land. They are part of a maf ic-ultramafic belt that lies between the Wilson Terrane, representing part of the palaeo-Pacific margin of Gondwana, and the Bowers Terrane, a Cambro-Ordovician volcanic are and related sediments, accreted to t he margin during the Ross Orogeny. The eclogites formed at temperature s in the range 750-850 degrees C and pressures above 15 kbar and subse quently experienced a decompressional path to low pressure amphibolite facies conditions. The formation and exhumation of eclogites and the attainment of the metamorphic peak in adjacent rock units is consisten t with a plate convergent setting model at the palaeo-Pacific margin o f Gondwana.