Stratigraphic and Sedimentologic Analysis of Permian Strata in the Shackleton Glacier Area, Antarctica

该奖项支持了一个项目，该项目旨在调查横贯南极山脉中部的上石炭世（?）和二叠纪冰川二晶岩、盆地页岩和河流含煤地层，这些地层聚集在冈瓦纳古太平洋边缘形成的一个主要沉积盆地中。盆地包含1.5公里的上古生界地层。在这些岩石沉积的时候，南极洲位于冈瓦纳大陆的中心，并占据了二叠纪南极附近的位置。冰川沉积物表明了与现在相似的条件。在冰期后地层中，煤、化石植物和大型进动碎屑楔的沉积记录了气候和构造条件的巨大变化。虽然横贯南极山脉中部的上石炭统和二叠统岩石含有丰富的信息，但它们主要是非海相的，缺乏无脊椎动物化石。由于目前缺乏对这些地层的时间控制，盆地的地质历史由许多局部的马赛克组成。在获得时间控制之前，在这些局部部分中记录的事件的意义仍然是推测性的。本研究将对沙克尔顿冰川地区的上石炭统和二叠统地层进行研究，以确定沉积盆地内的时间控制。层序地层学技术以及岩相分析将被应用于这些岩石的研究。这些工具将有助于确定南极洲地区重要的沉积、气候、构造和古生态事件的位置和时间。

9419962 Isbell This award supports a project to investigate the Upper Carboniferous (?) and Permian glacial diamictite, basinal shale, and fluvial coal-bearing strata in the central Transantarctic Mountains that accumulated in a major sedimentary basin that formed along the Paleo-Pacific margin of Gondwana. The basin contains 1.5 km of upper Paleozoic strata. At the time these rocks were deposited, Antarctica was centrally located within the Gondwana continent, and occupied a position near the Permian South Pole. Glacial deposits suggest conditions similar to the present. Within post-glacial strata, coal, fossil plants, and the deposits of large prograding clastic wedges record a dramatic change in climatic and tectonic conditions. Although Upper Carboniferous and Permian rocks in the central Transantarctic Mountains contain an abundance of information, they are primarily nonmarine and lack invertebrate fossils. Due to a present lack of time control within these strata, the basin's geologic history consists of numerous local mosaics. Until time control is obtained, the significance of events recorded within these local sections will remain speculative. This study will examine Upper Carboniferous (?) and Permian strata in the Shackleton Glacier area in order to establish time control within the depositional basin. Sequence stratigraphic techniques, along with palynomorph analysis, will be applied to the study of these rocks. These tools will help to constrain the location and timing of regionally significant depositional, climatic, tectonic, and paleoecologic events within Antarctica.