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

• 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

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