Geological investigations and collection of fossil specimens from the Sledgers Glacier-Mariner Glacier region to determine the geological history and environment of deposition of the region

The eastern part of the Bower Group in the Mariner Glacier area and the central western part of the Bowers Group in the Black Glacier-Sledger Glacier area were visited and examined to search for fossils and examine the stratigraphic sequence. It was hoped that the fossil collections would enable an age determination of the rocks, provide information to help deduce the environment of deposition of the rocks and to provide the basis for detailed comparison of the stratigraphic and faunal succession of the region with that of New Zealand and eastern Australia. In addition, it was hoped to learn something of the fossil species themselves and of the life that existed in Antarctica in the Cambrian period - the earliest period with fossilised life. The areas visited in the Mariner Glacier region in the southeast to the Sledgers Glacier and Edlin Neve in the north west included Evans Neve, Coates Rocks, Houliston Glacier, Neall Massif, Husky Pass, Mt Glasgow, Edlin Neve, Helix Pass, Rilley Ridge and Molar Massif. Trilobites, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods, molluscs and trace fossils were found at several localities in rocks of the Bowers Group. Faunas represent the Middle Cambrian, early Late Cambrian and middle or late Late Cambrian. They indicate that the Bowers Group as currently defined, ranges in age from the Middle Cambrian to Late Cambrian or Ordovician. A second field season was used to investigate in detail specific problems relating to the age and correlation of specific formations of the Bowers Supergroup and to visit areas not reached previously. Further fossil material from known fossil localities was collected and fossils in previously unfossiliferous rocks were found. The sites visited included Riley Ridge, Molar Massif, Mt Glasgow, Helix Pass, Houliston Glacier, Neall Massif, Quartzite Ranges, Mt McCarthy and Mariner Spurs.