SCOTT GLACIER Everett, K. R., and R. E. Behling. 1970. Chemical and - physical characteristics of Meserve Glacier morainal soils, Wright Valley, Antarctica: an index of relative age? In: International Symposium on Antarctic Glaciological Ex- ploration, Hanover, New Hampshire, 3-7 September 1968. International Association of Scientific Hydrology. Publica- tion, 86. p. 459-460. Doumani, G. A., and V. H. Minshew. 1965. General geology 20O- AMUND5EN GLACIER (A-A) of the Mount Weaver area, Queen Maud Mountains, DEVILS GLACIER lB-B) Antarctica. Antarctic Research Series, 6: 127-139. 3000. . . Hollin, J. T. 1962. On the glacial history of Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology, 4(32): 173-195. Mercer, J. H. In press. Some observations on the glacial geology of the Beardmore Glacier area. In: R. J . Adie ma (ed.), 1400 6p Antarctic Geology and Geophysics. Oslo, Uni- •. ... versitetsforlaget. 1000 - - Nichols, R. L. 1961. Multiple glaciation in the Wright 600 Valley, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Tenth Pacific Science 200 tSHLETON GLACIER A Congress. Abstracts of Papers Presented, p. 317. I Oliver, R. L. 1964. Geologic observations at Plunket Point, Beardmore Glacier. In: R. J Adie (ed.) 3000 ro FL . Antarctic Geology. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 248-258. Wade, F. A., V. L. Yeats, J. R. Everett, D. W. Greenlee, K. E. LaPrade, and J. L. Shenk. 1965. Geology of the ma Central Queen Maud Range, Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. Texas Tech University. Antarctic Series, 65-1. 54 p. Indicates minimum level 600- Data point ... High moraine surface Middle moraine surface - Present ice surface Figure 3. Profiles of middle and high moraines. Mawson Tillite, Victoria Land, present ice, flowed in the same direction the present East Antarctica: reinvestigation ice does. The broad expanse of depositional sites (Scott Glacier to the Coombs Hills) and the fabrics continued imply that the Sirius Formation was deposited by a continental-scale ice sheet. Moreover, to deposit a HAROLD W. BORNS, JR. and BRADFORD A. HALL basal till the ice related to the Sirius Formation must Department of Geological Sciences have been not only of a continental scale but thick University of Maine at Orono enough to permit basal melting. Further investigation of samples collected will help HAROLD W. BALL elucidate the environment of deposition of the Sirius Division of Paleontology Formation. British Museum This work was supported by National Science Foun- dation grant GV-26652. H. KELLEY BROOKS I acknowledge the aid of the helicopter crews of Department of Geology VXE-6 in transporting a 400-kilogram cavernously University of Florida weathered granite boulder from Bull Pass (adjacent to Wright Valley) to McMurdo Station. The boulder This program was a continuation of the program was shipped to Bostons Museum of Science to be put to reinvestigate the origin and age of the Mawson on display as part of an exhibit of interesting rocks Tillite(?) begun in the 1968-1969 field season by from around the world. H. W. Borns, Jr., and B. A. Hall. Our primary objective in the 1971-1972 season was to revisit a Jurassic pond deposit at Carapace Nunatak References in the Transantarctic Mountains of south Victoria Land in a continuing effort to describe the fauna and Barrett, P. J . 1969. Stratigraphy and petrology of the flora and ascertain the paleoenvironment and age of mainly fluviatile Permian and Triassic Beacon rocks, Beardmore Glacier area, Antarctica. Institute of Polar this important Southern Hemisphere fossil locality Studies. Report, 34. 132 p. (Borns and Hall, 1969; Hall and Borns, 1970). Elliot, D. H., and D. A. Coates. 1971. Geological investi- The party was placed on Carapace Nunatak by gations in the Queen Maud Mountains. Antarctic Journal helicopters in late December and during the 10 days of the U.S., VI(4): 114-118. that followed quarried approximately 700 kilograms of 106 ANTARCTIC JOURNAL , --

k

.t N. & I A.

Figure 1. Isepod, Carapace Nunatak pond deposit. Figure 2. Insect and syncarid fragment, Carapace Nunatak pond Length: approximately 2.5 centimeters. deposit. Length of insect: approximately 1 .5 centimeters. fossiliferous rock for shipment to the United States References for study. Ballance, P. F., and W. A. Watters. 1971. The Mawson Fossils known to be represented are conchostracans, Diamictite and the Carapace Sandstone, formations of the notostrachans, isopods (fig. 1), ostracods, and syn- Ferrar Group at Allan Hills and Carapace Nunatak, Vic- toria Land, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology carids (all fresh-water crustaceans), and these are as- and Geophysics, 14: 512-527. sociated with insects (fig. 2) and plants. The con- Borns, H. W., and B. A. Hall. 1969. Mawson "Tillite" in chostracans and notostrachans are commonly asso- Antarctica: preliminary report of a volcanic deposit of ciated with temporary pools and ponds, but the varied Jurassic age. Science, 166 (3907): 870-872. Hall, B. A., and H. W. Borns, Jr. 1970. Jurassic geology of nature of many of the fossiliferous horizons in the the Allan-Battlements-Carapace Nunataks area, Victoria Carapace deposit, their lateral extent, and the pres- Land (abs.). SCAR/IUGS Symposium, Oslo, Norway. ence of the isopods and syncarids suggest the shallow Townrow, J. A. 1967. Fossil plants from Allan and Carapace margins of a more permanent lake. As yet no verte- Nunataks, and from the upper Mill and Shackleton Gla- brates have been found in association. ciers, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 10(2): 456-473. A particularly interesting aspect of part of the fauna is that it appears to be anachronistic. On the basis of comparison with coeval volcanic beds, the pond deposits of Carapace Nunatak have been as- Basement geology of Mount Insel signed a mean absolute age of 156 million years area, Victoria Valley, Antarctica (Ballance and Watters, 1971, p. 521) near the base of the Upper Jurassic. This broadly accords with Townrows (1967) assignation of a Middle Jurassic A. G. SUBLETT, W. C. HAUCK, R. S. HOUSTON, age for the plants. However, the conchostracans and and S. B. SMITHSON notostrachans appear to have very close affinities with Department of Geology forms occurring together in the Upper Triassic Cave University of Wyoming Sandstone of South Africa, and the isopods with a species from the Upper Trias of Australia. Apart from During the 1971-1972 field season, we mapped base- the apparent age differences, the geographical distri- ment rocks on the east flank of Mount Insel in Vic- bution of these forms also is noteworthy. toria Valley, where complex structural relationships With close helicopter support we visited sections are well exposed. of Battlements Nunatak and Allan and Coombs Hills, Metamorphic basement rocks mapped are caic- which were not visited in the 1968-1969 season. silicate schist and gneiss, marble, and quartzo-felds- Additional volcanics for radiometric dating were pathic gneiss. Mineral assemblages containing garnet collected, and the ubiquitous presence of stratification in the quartzo-feldspathic gneiss; sillimanite coexisting within the Mawson volcanic breccia was documented. with K-feldspar, and lack of muscovite in pelitic schist This work was carried out under National Science place these rocks in the upper-amphibolite metamor- Foundation grant GA-1148. phic facies.

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