Contributions to quaternary geology of cape crozier, white island and hut point Peninsula, mcmurdo sound region, Antarctica

Abstract

Rocks of the McMurdo Volcanics from Cape Crozier, White Island and Hut Point Peninsula can be correlated with the Melania Basalt, Aurora Trachyte, Nubian Basalt and Trachyte Hill Formations of Black Island.The volcanic cones of Cape Crozier comprise an alternating sequence of basalt and trachyte lavas which rest upon the lower flanks of Mt. Terror. Advances of glacier ice have formed extensive moraine covered beaches up to 300 m high between the volcanic cones.White Island is comprised of two basalt shield volcanoes, with younger basalt cones aligned north-south across them. Five glacial benches on the north coast have been found and pebble types on them suggest that they were probably formed by an expanded Ross Ice Shelf, rather than an enlarged Koettlitz Glacier.The basalt volcanoes of Hut Point Peninsula are aligned NNE. Trachytes occur at the southern end of the lineation at Observation Hill, and autoclastic breccias at the northern end at Castle Rock © 1971 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.