Proposed Programme

Work conducted by Victoria University and the Geological Survey in recent years has shown that both the Taylor and Victoria Group sediments in south Victoria Land have been deposited by non-marine processes (Sherwood et al 1989, Woolfe 1989. Woolfe et al 1989), in contrast to earlier interpretations of the Taylor Group using trace fossils (Bradshaw 1981).

During 1989-90 a four man Victoria University party visited exposures in the Skelton Névé to Robinson Peak area to took for facies, paleocurrent and thickness changes that may provide clues as to the mechanics of basin forming processes.

It has been suggested by some workers (Collinson et al 1987) that the Beacon Supergroup was deposited in a foreland basin, but this is not consistent with many features of the Beacon, including absence of deformation, basin symmetry, petrology of basal sediment and also the present day regional configuration of the Ross Sea sector.

Questions to be addressed by the current study include; where was the Beacon Basin in relation to the continental margin and what processes were driving basin development?

In addition to this regional study two local investigations were started during the summer, a comparison of the Pivot and Welter Coal Measures and a reinterpretation of Lashly A sediments. These projects are currently being undertaken as Masterate and BSc Honours programmes respectively. They also lead into more detailed studies of Beacon strata proposed for 1990-91 at Allen Hills.

This work will concentrate on modelling the processes that deposited upper Weiler Coal Measures, Feather Conglomerate and the Lashly Formation. This should provide a fluvial model that is better able than those of Allen (1965) and Smith (1989) to explain the occurrence of sheet sandstones in apparently meandering sequences.