Revision of the Goldie Formation

Goodge (1997) further pointed out that the rocks of the Beardmore Group were folded less than 600 million years ago, as indicated by U-Pb dates of detrital zircons (Walker and Goodge 1994), but more than 500 million years ago, based on age determinations of the post-kinematic Hope Granite. The evidence for a continuous spectrum of dates within the Ross orogen from Late Neoproterozoic to Ordovician is best accounted for by one continuous and extended tectonic process encompassed within the Ross Orogeny. 

The crystalline basement rocks of the Antarctic craton experienced higher temperatures and pressures compared to the supracrustal rocks which caused the two geologic units to respond differently to the applied stresses that originated from the subduction zone. 

Goodge (1997, p. 698) summed up the presentation of his model for the tectonic evolution of the passive rift margin of East Antarctic into an active subduction zone which resulted in the prolonged Beardmore + Ross Orogeny with these words  

This model successfully integrates structural, stratigraphic, and geochronological data from several areas along the Transantarctic Mountains... and it is consistent with the independent conclusion that Beardmore Group deformation is but one manifestation of a protracted plate-tectonic continuum referred to as the Ross Orogeny. 

The Ross orogenic cycle constitutes a broad and diachronous sequence of geologic events during the latest Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic manifested by different strain histories in rocks occupying different crustal levels. 

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