Uncharted Permian to Jurassic continental deposits in the far north of Victoria Land, East Antarctica

The remote lower reaches of the Rennick Glacier in the far north of Victoria Land hold some of the least-explored outcrop areas of the Transantarctic basin system. Following recent international field-work efforts in the Helliwell Hills, we here provide a comprehensive emendation to the regional str...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Geological Society
Main Authors: Bomfleur, Benjamin, Mors, Thomas, Unverfaerth, Jan, Liu, Feng, Laeufer, Andreas, Castillo, Paula, Oh, Changhwan, Park, Tae-Yoon S., Woo, Jusun, Crispini, Laura
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: GEOLOGICAL SOC PUBL HOUSE 2020
Subjects:
CENTRAL TRANSANTARCTIC MOUNTAINS
BRAIDED RIVER DEPOSIT
BEACON SUPERGROUP
TRIASSIC BOUNDARY
AGE CONSTRAINTS
ASSEMBLAGES
STRATIGRAPHY
GONDWANA
FOSSILS
GEOLOGY
Geosciences
Multidisciplinary
East Antarctica
Helliwell Hills
Rennick
Rennick Glacier
Section Peak
Transantarctic Mountains
Van der Hoeven
Victoria Land
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://ir.nigpas.ac.cn/handle/332004/32807
http://ir.nigpas.ac.cn/handle/332004/32808
https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-062
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Summary:The remote lower reaches of the Rennick Glacier in the far north of Victoria Land hold some of the least-explored outcrop areas of the Transantarctic basin system. Following recent international field-work efforts in the Helliwell Hills, we here provide a comprehensive emendation to the regional stratigraphy. Results of geological and palaeontological reconnaissance and of petrographic, geochemical and palynostratigraphic analyses reveal a stack of three previously unknown sedimentary units in the study area: the Lower Triassic Van der Hoeven Formation (new unit, 115+ m thick) consists mainly of quartzose sandstone and non-carbonaceous mudstone rich in continental trace fossils. The Middle to Upper Triassic Helliwell Formation (new unit, 235 m thick) consists of coal-bearing overbank deposits and volcaniclastic sandstone and yielded typical plant fossils of the Gondwanan Dicroidium flora together with plant-bearing silicified peat. The succession is capped by c. 14 m of the sandstone-dominated Section Peak Formation (uppermost Triassic-Lower Jurassic). Our results enable more detailed correlation of the Palaeozoic-Mesozoic successions throughout East Antarctica and into Tasmania. Of particular interest is one section that spans the end-Permian mass extinction interval, which promises to allow detailed reconstructions of high-latitude vegetation dynamics across this critical interval in Earth history. Supplementary material: A Supplementary Data File containing supplementary information, figures S1-S7, and additional references is available at

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