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

• Main Authors: Bomfleur, Benjamin, Mörs, Thomas, Unverfärth, Jan, Liu, Feng, Läufer, Andreas, Castillo, Paula, Oh, Changhwan, Park, Tae-Yoon S., Woo, Jusun, Crispini, Laura
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Geological Society of London 2020
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica; East Antarctica; Rennick Glacier; Victoria Land
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5118431.v1; https://geolsoc.figshare.com/collections/Uncharted_Permian_to_Jurassic_continental_deposits_in_the_far_north_of_Victoria_Land_East_Antarctica/5118431/1

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. 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 Early 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 Late 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 ...