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Antarctic and Southern Ocean science is vital to understanding natural variability, the processes that govern global change and the role of humans in the Earth and climate system. The potential for new knowledge to be gained from future Antarctic science is substantial. Therefore, the international Antarctic community came together to ‘scan the horizon’ to identify the highest priority scientific questions that researchers should aspire to answer in the next two decades and beyond. Wide consultation was a fundamental principle for the development of a collective, international view of the most important future directions in Antarctic science. From the many possibilities, the horizon scan identified 80 key scientific questions through structured debate, discussion, revision and voting. Questions were clustered into seven topics: i) Antarctic atmosphere and global connections, ii) Southern Ocean and sea ice in a warming world, iii) ice sheet and sea level, iv) the dynamic Earth, v) life on the precipice, vi) near-Earth space and beyond, and vii) human presence in Antarctica. Answering the questions identified by the horizon scan will require innovative experimental designs, novel applications of technology, invention of next-generation field and laboratory approaches, and expanded observing systems and networks. Unbiased, non-contaminating procedures will be required to retrieve the requisite air, biota, sediment, rock, ice and water samples. Sustained year-round access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will be essential to increase winter-time measurements. Improved models are needed that represent Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the Earth System, and provide predictions at spatial and temporal resolutions useful for decision making. A co-ordinated portfolio of cross-disciplinary science, based on new models of international collaboration, will be essential as no scientist, programme or nation can realize these aspirations alone.

Antarctic and Southern Ocean science is vital to understanding natural variability, the processes that govern global change and the role of humans in the Earth and climate system. The potential for new knowledge to be gained from future Antarctic science is substantial. Therefore, the international Antarctic community came together to ‘scan the horizon’ to identify the highest priority scientific questions that researchers should aspire to answer in the next two decades and beyond. Wide consultation was a fundamental principle for the development of a collective, international view of the most important future directions in Antarctic science. From the many possibilities, the horizon scan identified 80 key scientific questions through structured debate, discussion, revision and voting. Questions were clustered into seven topics: i)Antarctic atmosphere and global connections, ii) Southern Ocean and sea ice in a warming world, iii) ice sheet and sea level, iv) the dynamic Earth, v) life on the precipice, vi) near-Earth space and beyond, and vii) human presence in Antarctica. Answering the questions identified by the horizon scan will require innovative experimental designs, novel applications of technology, invention of next-generation field and laboratory approaches, and expanded observing systems and networks. Unbiased, non-contaminating procedures will be required to retrieve the requisite air, biota, sediment, rock, ice and water samples. Sustained year-round access toAntarctica and the Southern Ocean will be essential to increase winter-time measurements. Improved models are needed that represent Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the Earth System, and provide predictions at spatial and temporal resolutions useful for decision making. A co-ordinated portfolio of cross-disciplinary science, based on new models of international collaboration, will be essential as no scientist, programme or nation can realize these aspirations alone.

Eclogite facies rocks along the Paleozoic active margin of Gondwana are rare. They are limited to isolated segments of Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica), western Tasmania, and southeastern Australia. New petrological data for mafic rocks and their host garnet-kyanite schists from the Franklin Metamorphic Complex (western Tasmania) permit reconstruction of six main stages of mineral growth for the eclogite. Stages I and II occurred at greenschist/ amphibolite-facies conditions (ca. 500–600 °C; 0.55–0.7 GPa for stage II) before attaining high-pressure conditions (at≈600–650 °C; N1.5GPa for stage III). The following stages, IV and V, record the decompression from high-pressure conditions to amphibolite-facies (ca. 500–600 °C; 0.4–1.0 GPa). Finally, stage VI represents the late greenschist-facies retrogression. However, the pelitic schist surrounding the eclogite records only the medium pressure amphibolite- facies stage. The P–T evolution over time outlines a clockwise path that is quite steep in both the prograde and retrograde segments. The latter shows a nearly isothermal decompression between the eclogite and the high-pressure amphibolite-facies stage IV, which was achieved at deep crustal levels (≈30 km), and a final decrease in both pressure and temperature from deep/intermediate to shallow crustal levels, with a typical cooling-unloading path. The lack of a complete re-equilibration during the different stages and the high dP/dT for both the prograde and retrograde paths are indicative of a rapid burial and initially rapid exhumation. The similarity of the mafic whole-rock chemical composition, including N, T to E-MORB and of the peak metamorphic age (≈500Ma) between the Tasmanian eclogites and the UHP rocks from Northern Victoria Land, supports the idea that they formed in the context of the same contractional event. However, the different P–T conditions and dP/dT point to different tectono-metamorphic settings for the two sectors of the paleo-Pacific margin, Upprättat; 2009; 20111123 (ysko)