Glossopteris

One of the most spectacular discoveries of the 1963-64 field season was made by the Minnesota party under direction of Campbell Craddock (9) in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. They submitted a sample of high rank coal accompanied by characteristic elements of the Glossopteris flora at a locality about 600 or 700 miles north of the nearest similar occurrences in the Transantarctic Mountains, intermediate in position between them and the Falkland Islands, where a similar flora (but no coal) has been reported from the work of early Swedish Expeditions. 

Figure 2. Comparison of fixed carbon (dry, mineral free) with relative stratigraphic position on Mt. Schopf and Mt. Glossopteris. Results of proximate analyses of three measured sections (Long (23)) are plotted in each group...

Ohio Range, Mt. Glossopteris, about 1.5 miles NW of summit. H-16 Coll. 1959, W. E. Long, OSU. 

Horlick Mountains Region Ohio Range, Mt. Glossopteris (NW) Proximate Analysis, % Ultimate Analysis, %... 

Eventually the tractor train arrived at Station 414 at the foot of the Horlick Mountains and was delayed there by lack of fuel. The resupply plane from Byrd Station had to turn back several times because of bad weather, problems with radio transmissions, and mechanical problems. While the group waited for several days for the plane. Bill Long and three of his companions decided to climb Ml Glossopteris which is one of the highest mountains in that part of Antarctica at 2,867 m above sea level. 

Fig. 2.19 This picture taken by Emil Schulthess, a Swiss photographer who spent some time in the field with the Byrd-Station traverse group, captures the moment Bill Long returned to the Sno-cats at Station 414 after he and his companions had successfully climbed Mt. Glossopteris in the...

Long and his companions extracted an unweathered sample of coal from a seam in the Mt. Glossopteris Formation. 

I I Mt. Glossopteris Fm. Discovery Ridge Fm, Buckeye Tillite I I Horlick Fm. 

Chemical Analysis of a Porphyritic Quartz Monzonite, Mt. Glossopteris, Ohio Range (W.W. Brannock, US Geological Survey, Reported by Long 1961)... 

Fossilized leaves of Glossopteris and Gangamopteris of Permian age are present in this formation. 

Sunny Ridge located about 5 km southwest of Mt. Weaver in Fig. 10.19 contains a thick unit of black shale with interbedded sandstone and coal. These sedimentary rocks are about 160 m thick and dip southwest at 40°. The shale contains leaves of Glossopteris and petrified tree trunks up to 20 cm thick. The relation of the Sunny-Ridge section to the stratigraphy of Mt. Weaver is not understcx)d. 

Cyclical deposits of sandstone, shale and coal. Each cycle starts with a massive sandstone bed featuring large-scale trough cross-bedding and shale clasts at the base. Fossil leaves of Glossopteris and petrified tree trunks up to 60 cm in diameter are common, many are still upright. A quartz-pebble conglomerate occurs at the base of this formation Disconformity... 

Beacon rocks are also exposed at Mt. Howe and D Angelo Bluff located about 50 km south of Mt. Weaver beyond the southern hmit of Fig. 10.19. Shales at Mt. Howe contain abundant Glossopteris leaves. The sedimentary rocks were intruded by diabase siUs which converted the sedimentary rocks to homfels and altered the coal to graphite. 

The Buckeye Tillite grades up-section into the Weaver Formadon, the lower part of which is composed of shale with animal trails and ice-rafted pebbles. The middle part consists of interbedded siltstone and shale containing trace fossils. The upper part is a massive sandstone topped by a thin shale bed. The sandstone is characterized by the presence of animal burrows while the shale contains abundant Glossopteris leaves. 

Fig. 10.20 Mt. Glossopteris (2,867 m) of the Ohio Range is composed of 1,220 m of flat-lying sedimentary rocks of the Beacon Supergroup. These rocks were first examined in December of 1958 by four American geologists who reached the Ohio Range during the Marie-Byrd Land oversnow-...

Late Permian Mt. Glossopteris 700 Arkose, sandstone shale, coal, Glossopteris leaves, Dadoxylon,... 

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