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

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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.