Geology of the area between the Axel Heiberg and Shackleton Glaciers, Queen Maud Range, Antarctica

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A preliminary account is given of the geology of the Lower Paleozoic basement complex in the Queen Maud Range between the Axel Heiberg and Shackleton Glaciers. Three new formations are proposed for metamorphosed sedimentary and minor volcanic rocks of the Ross Supergroup which crop out only within 20 km of the coast. The Duncan Formation, composed of dark pelitic hornfels and schist, is overlain by the Fairweather Formation, which is composed of cataclastic rocks believed to have been derived from sandstone. The Henson Marble, composed mainly of marble and intruded by small laccoliths of basic igneous rocks, overlies the Fairweather Formation. A unit of sandstone and conglomerate is inferred to be younger than the Henson Marble. The Ross Supergroup was folded about axes trending north to north-west. Between the Middle Cambrian and Ordovician the Ross Supergroup was intruded by a rather varied calc-alkaline plutonic association correlated with the Granite Harbour Intrusives. Pretectonic intrusives, emplaced before or in the early stages of the folding of the Ross Supergroup, crop out near the coast. Post-tectonic intrusives, intruded after the folding, make up a large batholith, for which the name Queen Maud Batholith is proposed, and smaller plutons near the coast. They have thermally metamorphosed most of the Ross Supergroup to hornblende-hornfels grade. The western part of the Queen Maud Range is deduced to be a tilted block that has been upthrown along a major fault some distance off the coast and dips gently south-south-west beneath the Polar Plateau. There is evidence that the Ross Ice Shelf bordering the western Queen Maud Range has been higher in geologically recent times.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: