The Transantarctic Mountains: A natural laboratory for apatite fission-track analysis. Results from Italian Antarctic Expeditions

Apatite fission-track analysis has been applied to samples collected during the 1991/1992, 1993/1994 and 1996/1997 campaigns of the Italian Antarctic Project in the Transantarctic Mountains. Samples from the first two campaig ns, collected in the area between the Mariner and the David Glaciers (north ern Victoria Land), reveal that a Late Cretaceous uplift denudation phase a lready identified in other sectors of the chain took place also in this reg ion. They also confirm the occurrence of a more recent phase starting in th e Late Paleocene. Offsets in apatite age profiles regarding samples collect ed further north during the third campaign reveal Cenozoic normal faulting with variable sense of offset.