Palaeozoic Terrane Correlation: New Zealand and Antarctica

In St Johns Range and eastern Olympus Range, unusually coarse lithologies at the base of the Beacon Supergroup have the potential to provide significant information on the provenance of the earliest sediments of the Victoria basin during the Devonian. Selected sites were visited for detailed analysis and dating of conglomerate clasts to test the hypothesis that some of these deposits may have been derived from conjoined Early Palaeozoic terranes of northern Victoria Land, New Zealand and eastern Australia. These may have become juxtaposed to southern Victoria Land during the Devonian following orogenic movements. Localities visited were Mt Suess, Sperm Bluff, Gargoyle Turrets, Wheeler Valley, Ringer Glacier and Mt Cerberus. Key results include the conglomerates being found to be less diverse than previously reported, that the principle lithic pebbles were rhyolites, similar in age and composition to the Granite Harbour Intrusives, although no rhyolites outcrop today, and that widespread quartzite pebbles were derived from an unknown source.