The geology of the Nimrod Glacier - Beaumont Bay area

The geology of the Nimrod Glacier - Beaumont Bay area was examined to describe the structure, formation and depositional history of the region. Three types of sedimentary rock types were present in the area; Wilson Greywackes (term used in loose sense to include the true greywackes of the coastal range and the indurate shallow water sandstones, conglomerates and thin shale bonds found further inland), Cambrian Bluff Limestones (fossiliferous limestones typically exposed along the extent of the inland range) and Beacon Sandstones (no outcrops visited). The lithology and stratigraphy was investigated and described. Three types of igneous rocks were also investigated and described including May Granites, Granite Harbour Intrusives and Ferrar Dolerites. The areas visited include the coastal range from Cape Wilson in the south to Beaumont Bay in the north with both the inland and ice shelf sides of the range investigated. The range is broken in three places by prominent capes and each was investigated; the cape at Station U, immediately south of Beaumont Bay, Cape Laird and Cape Wililam Henry May. Algie Valley lying immediately inland of the coastal range and the inland range was traced from its southernmost extremity Cambrian Bluff to Mt Hunt. Mt Nares and Mt Albert Markham in the extreme northwest of the area were viewed and all the rocky outcrops and nunataks in between the coastal and inland ranges were investigated.