Crustal Provinces of the Prince Charles Mountains Region and Surrounding Areas in the Light of Aeromagnetic Data

The aeromagnetic data of the Lambert Glacier-Prince Charles Mountains area provide a rather complex but surprisingly coherent image for studying the geology and tectonic history of this region. Several distinct structural units can be differentiated in the magnetic anomaly data. The aeromagnetic data from the Prince Charles Mountains and surrounding areas reveal the spatial boundaries of the Archaean cratons at the Prince Charles Mountains and Vestfold-Rauer areas and suggest the existence of a previously unknown craton in Princess Elizabeth Land. The magnetic data differentiate the inner structure of the Beaver-Rayner Proterozoic mobile belt and the complex marginal belt of the Archaean cratons reworked by Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic tectonism. The aeromagnetic data clearly indicate no obvious link of the Pan-African mobile belt in Prydz Bay with Lutzow-Holm Bay, and provide no evidence that it extends inland towards the Mawson Escarpment or Grove Mountains. Thus, East Gondwana probably was not divided into Indo-Antarctic and Australo-Antarctic sectors as suggested by a number of recent studies.