Dominion Range

The Dominion Range in Fig. 19.6, located at the confluence of the Beardmore and Mill glaciers at 85°20 S and 166°30 E, was first visited by members of Robert Scott s and Ernest Shackleton s expeditions on their way to the South Geographyic Pole (Section 1.4). David and Priestley (1914) mentioned that members of Shackleton s party found several small limestone erratics on the summit of Mt. Hope on the western side of the mouth of the Beardmore Glacier and about 8(X) m above the present level of the ice. This observation was later confirmed by Oliver (1963) who reported that a lateral moraine on the northeast slope of Mt. Kyffin at the mouth of the Beardmore Glacier extends to an elevation of about 1,060 m above the present level of the Beardmore Glacier. 

The glacial deposits in the Dominion Range occur on a series of benches that constitute the Oliver Platform in Fig. 19.7. The elevations of these benches increase stepwise from about 1,800 m at Oliver Bluffs at the western edge of the Dominion Range adjacent to the 

Beardmore Glacier to about 2,600 m at the southern end of the Upper Oliver Platform (Webb et al. 1987). The glacial deposits of the Sirius Group in Table 19.2 consist of the late Pliocene Meyer Desert Formation (150 m) and of the overlying early Pleistocene Mt. Mills Formation (50 m) (Webb and Harwood 1993). 

Drift of unconsolidated gravel and tiU of PUo/Pleistocene age (yellow) was deposited on the Beardmore Erosion Surface on the lowest step of the topographic profile which was drawn parallel to the Koski Fault (Adapted from McKelvey etal. 1991) 

The Mt. Mills Formation which overlies the Meyer Desert Formation may be of early Pleistocene age although it is unfossiliferous and is composed of diamictite, breccia, conglomerate, and sandstone. The sediment of the Mills Formation was eroded by glaciers that subsequently occupied the Beardmore and Mill valleys. These glaciers deposited lateral moraines along the valley walls which constitute the Beardmore drift composed of unconsolidated gravel and till 

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Analyses 115-117 by the Dominion Laboratory of the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, covering coal from the Queen Elizabeth and Dominion Ranges, were provided through the kindness of C. A. Fleming of the New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt. 

As we have already discussed, further parameters of interest are the frequencies u>Q and U) deriving from the hi onic approximation at the bottom of the reactant well and the top of the barrier, respectively. Carmeli and Nitzan evaluated the reaction rate throughout the entire friction dominion ranging from the low-friction regime (w > y) to the high-friction regime. (This has also been commented on in S on II.B.) They also studied the dependence of the reaction rate on the correlation time... 

Pliocene (about 3.6 Ma) has been episodic at rates of about 1 km per million years. However, different blocks of the Transantarctic Mountains have been uplifted at different rates and at different times. For example, Webb et al. (1994) reported uplift rates between about 350 m/10 year and 548 m/10 year based on the occurrence of Pliocene marine microfossils in the mountains of the Queen Alexandra Range adjacent to the Beardmore Glacier and in the Dominion Range. 

Koeberl C, Hagen EH, Faure G (1988) Chemical composition and morphology of meteorite ablation spherules in Neogene till in the Dominion Range, Transantarctic Mountains. Lunar Planetary Science Conference, vol. 9(2). LPI, Houston, TX, pp 625-626... 

In one of the many seminal papers published by John Mercer he reported the presence of thick coherent drift capping...peaks and ridges in the Beardmore Glacier area in Fig. 19.4 (Mercer 1972). The till deposits Mercer described occur on Ml Sirius (2,3(X) m, 84°08 S and 163°15 E) and in the Dominion Range (2,300 m, 85°20 S and 166°30 E) at the head of the Beardmore Glacier. 

Fig. 19.4 Mount Sirius at 84°08 S and 163°15 E and the Dominion Range at 85°20 S and 166°30 E both contain large deposits of massive till composed of cobbles and boulders in a fine-grained matrix. The till on the summit of Mt. Sirius is about 100 m thick. The till in the Dominion Range reaches a thickness of up to 200 m in a deposit that extends for 6 km (Adapted from Mercer 1972, Fig. 1)...

Table 19.1 Chemical composition of the heavy-mineral fraction (1-0.0625 mm) in samples of till from Mt. Sirius and from the Dominion Range in micrograms per gram (Hagen 1988, p. 77)...

The till of the Sirius Group in the Dominion Range and at Mt. Achemar also contains detrital grains of pyrite. The isotope composition of sulfur of these grains was determined by Hagen (1988, p. 162) ... 

Table 19.2 Stratigraphy of the Pliocene glacial deposits in the Dominion Range and adjacent areas in the Transantarctic Mountains (Webb and Harwood 1993)...

Fig. 19.8 The Meyer Desert Formation of the Sirius Group in the Dominion Range has a fine grained yellowish-tan matrix of sand, silt, and clay that encloses angular boulders of dolerite of the Ferrar Group and of sedimentary rocks of the Beacon Supergroup. This facies of the glacial deposits closely resembles the diamictite on Mt. Sirius in Fig. 19.5b. However, the section in the Dominion Range also includes thin bedded and well-sorted fluvial and lacustrine sandstones and sUtstones that formed in peiiglacial environments that existed between episodic advances of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the late Pliocene (Photo by G. Faure)...

The climate of the Dominion Range during the late Pliocene may have been warmer than it is at the present... 

The sediment of unit 1 of the Meyer Desert Formation at Oliver Bluffs also contains marine forams (McKelvey et al. 1991) indicating that the present Dominion Range was within the Beardmore Fjord during the Pliocene at least part of the time. 

The presence of reworked marine diatoms of Cenozoic age in glacial deposits at high elevations in the Transantarctic Mountains (Harwood 1986a, b) seemed to require a source on the East Antarctic craton. In addition, the co-occurrence of wood fragments of Nothofagus and marine diatoms in the Dominion Range and on Mt. Sirius indicated a moderate climate in the area... 

Askin RA, Markgraf V (1986) Palynomorphs from the Sirius Formation, Dominion Range, Antarctica. Antarctic J US 21(5)34-35... 

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