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Evidence for pre-Jurassic subduction in western Antarctica

Abstract

THE South Shetland Islands (from King George Island to Livingston Island) are situated on a small crustal plate bounded by incipient back-arc spreading along the axis of Bransfield Strait to the east, a well defined oceanic trench to the west (along which subduction has apparently now ceased) and transverse faulting to the north and south1 (Fig. 1), The discovery of glaucophane-schists on Smith Island (Fig. 1, inset) suggests that subduction may have begun as early as the Upper Palaeozoic.

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SMELLIE, J., CLARKSON, P. Evidence for pre-Jurassic subduction in western Antarctica. Nature 258, 701–702 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/258701a0

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