Metadata details

ASAC_1243

All scientific data collected by the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) are eventually described in the Catalogue of Australian Antarctic and Subantarctic Metadata (CAASM). CAASM can be used to search through AAp data descriptions, and it also provides links to access publicly available datasets, which can either be immediately downloaded or obtained from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC).

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Citation
O'Reilly, S. (2002) Nature and Evolution of the Upper Mantle beneath Heard Island, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/554ACADFE35E6, Accessed: 2026-07-28
Title
Nature and Evolution of the Upper Mantle beneath Heard Island
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/554ACADFE35E6
Created Date
2000-08-11
Revision Date
2017-04-26
Parent record
None

Datasets and documents

    Related links

    Description

    This project is using ultramafic xenoliths - samples of the mantle beneath Heard Island to study the formation and evolution of the Kerguelen-Heard Plateau. Such plateaus are thought to represent an important stage in the formation of continents over the earths history. Additionally, new evidence suggests the Kerguelen Plateau may contain ancient continental fragments, which are possible remnants of Gondwana.
    Ultramafic xenoliths were collected from Heard Island during field season 2000 from 6 locations, 5 of which were previously unreported. Petrological and geochemical information is being used to characterise the mantle beneath Heard Island, and Re-Os isotopic dating is being used to constrain the formation age of the plateau. Initial results indicate the mantle beneath Heard Island is highly depleted in basaltic components. The presence of reaction textures containing small amounts of carbonate in some xenoliths is an indication of possible carbonatitic metasomatism, which has been observed for similar samples from Kerguelen.

    The fields in this dataset are:
    MU Number (Macquarie University Catalogue Number)
    Sample Number
    Location
    Latitude
    Longitude
    Description

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    Access

    These data are publicly available at the provided URL.

    Temporal Coverages

    Spatial Coverages

    Latitude

    Northernmost:
    -52.9651
    Southernmost:
    -53.1877

    Longitude

    Westernmost:
    73.2979
    Easternmost:
    73.7221

    Science Keywords

    Additional Keywords

    • DESCRIPTION
    • GEOLOGY
    • HEARD ISLAND
    • LATITUDE
    • LOCATION
    • LONGITUDE
    • MU NUMBER
    • SAMPLE NUMBER

    Locations

    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN > HEARD ISLAND
    • CONTINENT > AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND > HEARD ISLAND
    • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
    • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN

    Platforms

    • FIELD SURVEYS

    Instruments

      None

    Researchers

    • o'reilly, suzanne (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)

    Use Constraints

    This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License
    (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

    Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=ASAC_1243 when using these data.

    Creative Commons License