Grant Award View - GA69728
Opening of the Tasman Sea and the separation of Australia and...
The Balleny Plume, which is postulated to be located under Antarctica today, is thought to have produced a ~1200 km chain of volcanoes to the east of Tasmania, and may have acted as a driver for the opening of the Tasman Sea and separation of Australia and Antarctica. We aim to collect rock samples from this chain to assess whether it is an age-progressive track and explore its spatial and geochemical associations with other volcanism in the area. Our new data will reveal the timing of movement and separation of Australia, Antarctica and Zealandia during times of major change in the plate-mantle system, such as during global plate reorganisation events, as well times of dramatic climatic shifts, such as oceanographic changes associated with the opening of the Tasman Gateway and glaciation of Antarctica.