Extraterrestrial spherules in glacial sediment, Beardmore glacier area, Transantarctic Mountains

1990 ◽  
pp. 19-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik H. Hagen ◽  
Christian Koeberl ◽  
Gunter Faure
Keyword(s):  
Glacier Area ◽  
Glacial Sediment ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains

Permo-Triassic arthropod trace fossils from the Beardmore Glacier area, central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek E.G. Briggs ◽  
Molly F. Miller ◽  
John L. Isbell ◽  
Christian A. Sidor
Keyword(s):  
Bedding Plane ◽  
Trace Fossils ◽  
Glacier Area ◽  
Fluvial System ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains ◽  
Leaf Impressions

AbstractPermian and Triassic lacustrine and fluvial-system deposits in the Beardmore Glacier area of the Transantarctic Mountains preserve a superb record of continental environments and evidence of life on extensive bedding plane exposures. They yielded the first invertebrate trackways reported from continental Permo-Triassic deposits of Antarctica, here assigned to the ichnogenera Diplichnites and Diplopodichnus, which were probably produced by myriapodous arthropods. A resting trace is compared to Orbiculichnus and interpreted as generated by a jumping insect. Plant life is represented by leaf impressions, fossil forests and peat, vertebrates by body and trace fossils, and invertebrate shallow infauna by near surface burrows. The small number and diversity of trackways recovered from the large bedding plane exposures suggest that trackway-producing arthropods were rare at these high southern palaeolatitudes.

Early Palaeozoic history of the upper Beardmore Glacier area: implications for a major Antarctic structural boundary within the Transantarctic Mountains

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J. Rowell ◽  
Margaret N. Rees
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Glacier Area ◽  
Late Cambrian ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lower Palaeozoic ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains ◽  
Early Palaeozoic ◽  
Middle And Late Cambrian ◽  
Structural Boundary ◽  
Early Late

The central and western Transantarctic Mountains appear to be divided longitudinally by one or more terrane boundaries that separate two regions characterized by different Lower Palaeozoic successions. Re-examination of the upper Beardmore Glacier area and reinterpretation of its Early Palaeozoic stratigraphy emphasizes the strong similarity between it and the Byrd Group outcrops in the area between the Byrd and Nimrod glaciers. This similarity demonstrates that for several hundred kilometres the Cambrian succession of an inboard region is largely devoid of volcanic rocks but includes fossiliferous Lower Cambrian platformal limestones that are overlain unconformably by coarse basin-fill deposits. The latter probably include beds of Middle and perhaps early Late Cambrian age that were themselves deformed prior to the Devonian. Erratic blocks indicate that comparable successions may have been developed as far west as the Whichaway Nunataks. The inferred geological history of this part of the continental margin, which is commonly regarded as autochthonous, stands in contrast to that of more outboard regions where thick volcanic sequences occur in expanded stratigraphic sections that include shallow-marine Middle and Late Cambrian deposits. We consider that these regions, predominantly the Queen Maud and Theil mountains and the Neptune Range of the Pensacola Mountains, constitute one or more displaced crustal blocks. The boundary between them and the inboard sequence adjacent to the craton is probably a series of large strike-slip faults that may have been initiated during the Early Palaeozoic and have been active episodically since then.

An active Neoproterozoic margin: evidence from the Skelton Glacier area, Transantarctic Mountains

1993 ◽  
Vol 150 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. ROWELL ◽  
M. N. REES ◽  
E. M. DUEBENDORFER ◽  
E. T. WALLIN ◽  
W. R. VAN SCHMUS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Glacier Area ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains

Can the mass balance of the entire glacier area of the Tien Shan be estimated?

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 173-179
Author(s):  
M.B. Dyurgerov ◽  
M.G. Kunakhovitch ◽  
V.N. Mikhalenko ◽  
A. M. Sokalskaya ◽  
V. A. Kuzmichenok
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Vertical Profile ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Annual Runoff ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Exponential Dependence ◽  
Glacier Area ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
Boundary Area

The total area of glacierization of the Tien Shan in the boundary area of the USSR is about 8000 km2. The computation of mass balance was determined for this area in 12 river basins.In computation procedure, the vertical profile of snow accumulation in these regions and exponential dependence of variation of ablation with altitude are used. Thus the mass balance in each basin, bn, was calculated on the basis of these curves and represented in its relation with the equilibrium line altitude (ELA). It is shown that the relation ELA = f(bn) is linear when the range of bn values is close to zero, and in all altitude intervals this relation can be described by hypsographic curves, in all basins bn positive up to an ELA elevation of 3450 to 3500 m a.s.l. For average annual altitude of ELA, bn is negative for all regions. So the glaciers of these mountains add about 4 km3 of water to the total annual runoff.

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