Geologic Studies in the Shackleton Range Coats Land, and Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica: A North American Connection

有人认为，东南极和北美前寒武纪克拉通的太平洋边缘以前是并置的，在新元古代超大陆碎裂期间，它们漂移开来，形成了太平洋。支持这一假说的最关键和最直接的证据是，北美克拉通的格伦维尔造山带(格伦维尔前锋)的西北边界明显延伸到东南极，位于沙克尔顿山脉和海岸地带之间的韦德尔海的源头，美国地质学家很少访问该地区，也从未对其进行详细研究。该奖项支持对这一假说的初步检验，即对所讨论的南极岩石进行地质、地球化学、地质计时和古地磁研究，以便将它们与美国西南部格伦维尔前缘附近的岩石进行比较。这项工作将包括对南极大陆唯一未受干扰的新元古代沉积序列进行详细的地层学研究。

It has been suggested that the Pacific margins of the East Antarctic and North American Precambrian cratons were formerly juxtaposed, and that they drifted apart to initiate the Pacific Ocean during the fragmentation of a Neoproterozoic supercontinent. The most critical and immediate testable evidence put forward in support of this hypothesis is the apparent continuation of the northwestern boundary of the Grenville orogen of the North American craton, the Grenville front, into East Antarctica at the head of the Weddell Sea between the Shackleton Range and Coasts Land, an area seldom visited and never studied in detail by American geologists. This award supports an initial test of the hypothesis, a geologic, geochemical, geochronometric, and paleomagnetic study of the Antarctic rocks in question, in order to compare them with those adjacent to the Grenville front in the southwestern United States. The work will include detailed stratigraphic study of the only undisturbed Neoproterozoic sedimentary sequence in the Antarctic continent.