Apatite single‐grain (U‐Th)/He data from Heimefrontfjella, East Antarctica: Indications for differential exhumation related to glacial loading?

[1] Single-grain (U-Th)/He ages from two profiles were used to reconstruct the post-Permian tectonic-thermal history of basement rocks in Heimefrontfjella, East Antarctica. The (U-Th)/He ages from one sample collected below the late Carboniferous/Early Permian sedimentary cover rocks indicate Jurassic–Early Cretaceous basement paleotemperatures of ∼40°–60°C due to post-Permian burial. Combined apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He analyses from samples of a profile in Sivorgfjella suggest a period of flexural-related tilting after ∼87 Ma. The timing was further constrained using forward and inverse models of the (U-Th)/He data. Model results indicate a Cenozoic phase of relatively rapid cooling from ∼40°C to surface temperatures. As the driving mechanism, we propose flexural isostatic rebound due to glacial load during the development of the intracontinental ice sheet in the hinterland of the Heimefrontfjella region.