Northern Victoria Land

Northern Victoria Land in Fig. 4.1 extends from the David Glacier northward to the Pennell and Oates coasts. The width of the Transantarctic Mountains of this area increases to more than 400 km measured at the latitude of Cape Adare. The area is traversed by the Lillie, Rennick, and Matusevich glaciers all of which flow northwest and discharge ice into the South Pacific Ocean. Also, the Tucker, Borchgrevink, Mariner, Aviator, Campbell, and Priestley glaciers (not all of which are identified in Fig. 4.1) flow southeast into the Ross Sea. 

The mountains east of the Rennick Glacier are deeply dissected by narrow valleys which are occupied by a network of glaciers that flow toward the coast. The six highest peaks along the east coast reach elevations in excess of 3,000 m including Mt. Minto (71°47 S, 168°45 E) which at 4,163 m is even higher than Mt. Erebus (3,794 m) on Ross Island and Mt. Lister (4,025 m) in the Royal Society Range of southern Victoria Land. 

The highest peak in the mountains west of the Rennick Glacier (e.g., the Daniels Range of the US ARP Mountains) is Roberts Butte (72°39 S, 160°08 E) at 2,828 m, followed by Welcome Mountain (2,494 m) and Mt. Southard (2,402 m). The elevation of the polar plateau west of the Daniels Range rises gradually to about 2,500 m. 

The rocks of northern Victoria Land are cut by several northwest-trending fault zones including the Leap-Year, Lanterman, and Wilson faults in Fig. 4.2. These fault zones define the Wilson, Bowers, and Robertson Bay terranes. The juxtaposition of unrelated geologic features on opposite sides of these boundary faults suggests that they are major dislocations in the continental crust of northern Victoria Land and that they may represent sutures between accreted terranes. 

The history of the geological exploration of northern Victoria Land was described by Stump (1995) who has recorded the contributions made by geologists from many countries including Great Britain, New Zealand, USA, Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, and Australia. 

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R. Bargagli, S. Focardi, Preliminary data on heavy metals in surface soil and macrolichens of Northern Victoria Land, in B. Battaglia, P. M. Bisol, V. Varotto (Eds.), Proceedings of the Meeting on Antarctic Biology (1994), Edizioni Universitarie Pavatine, Padova, 227-234. 

Lisker F (2002) Review of fission track studies in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica—Passive-margin evolution versus uplift of the Transantarctic Mormtairrs. Tectonophysics 349 57-73 Liu T-K (1982) Tectonic implication of fission track ages from the Central Range, Taiwan. Proc Geol Soc China 25 22-37... 

Schafer T, Olesch M (1998) Multiple thermal evolution of Oates Land (Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica) Evidence from apatite fission track analysis. In Van den haute P, De Corte F (eds) Advances in Fission Track Geochronology. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, p 241-253 Schlunegger F, Willett S (1999) Spatial and temporal variations in exhumation of the central Swiss Alps and implications for exhumation mechaitisms. In Ring U, Brandon MT, Lister GS, Willett SD (eds) Exhumation Processes Normal Faulting, Ductile Flow, and Erosion. Geol Soc London Special Publ 154 157-179... 

Motivated by their wish to acquire basic knowledge on the elemental content of lichens in Antarctic regions and in Antarctica itself, a few authors collected and analyzed samples in different sites in and around this isolated continent. Bargagli et al. (1993) measured the Hg content of two species of macrolichens, Umbilicaria decussata and Usnea antartica, sampled on the coast of northern Victoria Land. These lichens contained higher Hg levels than lichens in other remote areas. It was suggested that a certain part of the airborne Hg, accumulated in the lichen, derived from local volcanic activity. 

Bargagli, R., Battisti, E., Focardi, S., Formichi, P., 1993. Preliminary data on environmental distribution of mercury in northern Victoria Land. Antarctica. Antarctic Sci. 5, 3-8. 

During an investigation of zeolites from Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica, numerous zeolitic species, among which the pentasils are predominant, were found in the Jurassic Ferrar Dolerites of Mt. Adamson heulandite, stellerite, stilbite, mordenite, erionite, levyne. 

Meisch A.T., 1969, The constant sum problem in geochemistry. In Merriam D.F. (ed.), Computer applicatiom in the earth sciertces. Plenum Press, New York, pp.. 161-176. Mensing T.M., Faure G., Jones L.M., Bowman J.R. and Hoefs J., 1984, Petrogenesis of the Kirkpatrick basalt, Solo Nunatak, northern Victoria Land Antarctica, based upon isotopic compositions of strontium, oxygen and sulfur. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 87, 101-108. 

Stump, E. Geologictil investigations in Northern Victoria Land... 

Stump E (ed) (1986) Geological investigations in Northern Victoria Land. Antarctic Research Series, vol. 46. American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC Sullivan W (1957) Quest for a continent. McGraw-HUl, New York... 

Fig. 2.1 Antarctica is conventionally oriented as shown and is subdivided into East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula. The Transantarctic Mountains extend from northern Victoria Land along the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf toward the Pensacola Mountains adjacent to the...

The volcanoes of the Transantarctic Mountains occur between Cape Hallett in northern Victoria Land and Mount Early (87°04 S, 153°46 W), which is located only 300 km from the South Pole. The volcanic mountains and cinder cones in the Transantarctic Mountains define the McMurdo Volcanic Province which is subdivided into four regions (Kyle 1990). These volcanoes were active in Late Tertiary time starting less than 25 million years ago and continuing to the present as in the case of Mount Erebus. All of them have extruded silica-undersaturated and alkali-rich lavas in marked contrast to the Ferrar Dolerite and Kirkpatrick Basalts of Middle Jurassic age both of which consist largely of silica-saturated tholeiites. These two suites of volcanic rocks are products of quite different petrogenetic processes that nevertheless occurred at different times in the lithospheric mantle underlying the Transantarctic Mountains. The petrogenesis of these different suites of volcanic rocks is the subject of Chapter 12 (Kirkpatrick Basalt) and Chapter 13 (Ferrar Dolerite), and Chapter 16 (Cenozoic Volcanoes). 

Fig. 2.4 During whiteout conditions in the Transantarctic Mountains the horizon becomes invisible and surface definition is lost. In the case shown here, the whiteout conditions resulted from high wind associated with snowfall near the coast of northern Victoria Land. The Scott tent, strU used by geological fieldpar-ties in the Transantarctic Mountains and on the polar plateau, is well suited for use in cold and windy weather, especially when it is set up in well-packed snow or neve. Mills Valley, Pain Mesa, northern Victoria Land, December 1982 (Photo by G. Faure)...

Fig. 2.16 This ski-equipped C-130 aircraft, flown by pilots of the US Navy, landed on Evans Ndve in northern Victoria Land in 1982 to drop off a geological fieldparty (Photo by T.M.

Bradshaw JD, Weaver SD, Laird MD (1985) Suspect terranes and Cambrian tectonics in northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. In HoweU DG (ed) Tectonostratigraphic Terranes of the Circum Pacific Region. Circum-Pacific CouncQ for Energy Mineral Resources, Houston, TX, pp 467-479 BirU C (1962) Gravity observations in the KoettUtz Glacier area, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. New Zealand Geol Geophys 5 810-819... 

The geologic mapping of northern Victoria Land began during the hitemational Geophysical Year (IGY)... 

Fig. 4.1 Northern Victoria Land consists of irregularly shaped nunataks separated by narrow valleys through which glaciers wind their way to the coast (e.g., Lithe, Tucker, Borchgrevink, Mariner, and Aviator). The only exception is the Rennick Glacier which occupies a wide fault basin. Several mountains along the Ross-Sea coast have elevations in excess of 3,000 m (e.g., Mt. Minto, 4,163 m Mt. Sabine, 3,719 m Mt. Supernal, 3,660 m ...

Table 4.1 Stratigraphy of the rocks exposed in northern Victoria Land (Gair et al. 1969)...

During the summer of 1964/65 two American geologists, Warren Hamilton and Dwight Crowder, used helicopters out of Hallett Station to examine rocks of a large part of northern Victoria Land between the Rennick Glacier and the coast of the Ross Sea (Hamilton 1967 Crowder and Hamilton 1967 Crowder 1968). The modern era of geological research started with the International Northern Victoria-Land Project... 

Nova Bay and continued to work in northern Victoria Land (Futterer et al. 2006). 

In 1987 the GANOVEX team published a comprehensive geological map of northern Victoria Land based on the accumulated results of their field work (Tessensohn et al. 1981) and a preliminary map of the structure of the Wilson, Bowers, and Robertson Bay terranes (GANOVEX-ITALIANTARTIDE 1991) in cooperation with Italian investigators. 

Fig. 4.2 Northern Victoria Land consists of three terranes that are separated from each other by the Leap Year and Lanterman faults. Each terrane is composed of characteristic assemblages of metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of Neoproterozoic and Cambrian ages. These basement rocks were locally intruded by plutons of the Granite Harbor Intrusives and by the younger Admiralty Intrusives. Rocks of the Beacon Supergroup occur only in a few places in northern Victoria Land including in the Morozumi Range and HeUiwell HiUs, in the adjacent Freyberg Mountains, and in the Lichen HiUs. The Kukri Peneplain, which is so prominent in southern Victoria Land, is only preserved in these locations (Adapted from Stump 1995)...

Fig. 4.3 (a) The camp of the International Northern Victoria-Land project 1981/82 consisted of a series of James way huts on the on the Evans Neve at 72°45 S and 164°30 E. The geological field work was supported by helicopters of the U.S. Navy (Photo... 

Fig. 4.5 Gondwana Station, the principal support base for scientists working with GANOVEX, is located at Gerlache Inlet of Terra Nova Bay on the Ross-Sea coast of northern Victoria Land (Photograph 2010 BGR)...

The Ross Orogen of southern Victoria Land extends across the David Glacier into the southern part of the Wilson Terrane of northern Victoria Land. The geology of this part of the Transantarctic Mountains in Fig. 4.6... 

Fig. 4.6 The basement rocks of southern Victoria Land extend northward across the David Glacier into the Terra-Nova-Bay region of the Wilson Terrane of northern Victoria Land (NVL). The basement rocks of this region consist mainly of Granite Harbor Intrusives and of metasedimentary rocks of Neoproterozoic to Cambrian age. The rocks above the Kukri Peneplain are not shown (i.e., Beacon Supergroup, Ferrar Dolerite, and McMurdo Volcanics). This area contains several prominent mountains including Mt. Melbourne which is an extinct volcano of the Cenozoic McMurdo Volcanics (Adapted from Warren 1969 Gair et al. 1969 Skinner 1983)...

The boundary between the Terra-Nova-Bay area and the main part of the Wilson terrane is not defined because the Ross Orogen continues from southern Victoria Land through the Terra-Nova-Bay area into the Wilson Terrane of northern Victoria Land without discernible interruption. The Wilson Terrane extends from the Terra-Nova-Bay area north to the Oates Coast of Antarctica and is separated from the Bowers Terrane by the Lanterman fault zone in Fig. 4.2. The Wilson Terrane extends east across the Renifick Glacier and includes the Lanterman and Salamander ranges which form its eastern province. ... 

The basement rocks of the Wilson Terrane are well exposed in the Wilson Hills and in the Daniels Range of the USARP Mountains as well as in the Emlen Peaks, on Welcome Mountain, and at Mt. Southard (Gair et al. 1969 Sturm and Carryer 1970 Tessensohn et al. 1981). Even though these mountain ranges are located adjacent to the polar plateau, Archean and Paleoproterozoic granulites of the East Antarctic era-ton have not been recognized in the Wilson Terrane or anywhere else in northern Victoria Land. 

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