Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T17:16:32.552Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reworked late Neogene Austrochlamys anderssoni (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from northern James Ross Island, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2011

D. Pirrie ,
H.A. Jonkers ,
J.L. Smellie ,
J.A. Crame  and
J.M. McArthur
D. Pirrie*
Affiliation:
Helford Geoscience LLP, Menallack Farm, Treverva, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9BP, UK
H.A. Jonkers
Affiliation:
Dommerswijk 10, 7782 PA De Krim, The Netherlands
J.L. Smellie
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
J.A. Crame
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET, UK
J.M. McArthur
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
*
dpirrie@helfordgeoscience.co.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We report on the discovery of a new outcrop of fossiliferous Neogene sediments on northern James Ross Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula. Approximately 100 specimens of the pectinid bivalve Austrochlamys anderssoni (Hennig, 1911) were collected from the permafrost active layer. This bivalve species has a late Miocene to late Pliocene range and has previously been reported from both the glaciomarine Hobbs Glacier Formation and the interglacial Cockburn Island Formation in the James Ross Island area. The localized presence of abundant A. anderssoni within the permafrost suggests that the fossils have been frost heaved from an outcrop of either the Cockburn Island or the Hobbs Glacier formations, originally deposited on northern James Ross Island. The overall shell form, general absence of associated Antarctic Peninsula-derived clasts in the host sediment, and the measured 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio of the shells (0.709050) which is indistinguishable from that for pectinid bivalves from the Cockburn Island Formation on Cockburn Island (0.709047) suggest that the shells were derived from a unit similar in age to the Cockburn Island Formation. This suggests that the Cockburn Island Formation was originally more laterally extensive than was previously known.

Keywords

Cockburn Island Formationfossil reworkingHobbs Glacier Formationlate Miocene–Pliocenepermafrost
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 180 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersson, J.G. 1906. On the geology of Graham Land. Bulletin of the Geological Institution of the University of Uppsala, 7, 19–71.Google Scholar
Bibby, J.S. 1965. Some observations on sea-level changes in the James Ross Island group. British Antarctic Survey Bulletin, No. 6, 67–75.Google Scholar
Björck, S., Olsson, S., Ellis-Evans, C., Håkansson, H., Humlum, O. Lirio, J.M. 1996. Late Holocene palaeoclimatic records from lake sediments on James Ross Island, Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 121, 195–220.Google Scholar
Dingle, R.V. Lavelle, M. 1998. Antarctic Peninsular cryosphere: Early Oligocene (c. 30 Ma) initiation and a revised glacial chronology. Journal of the Geological Society, 155, 433–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dingle, R.V., McArthur, J.M. Vroon, P. 1997. Oligocene and Pliocene interglacial events in the Antarctic Peninsula dated using strontium isotope stratigraphy. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 154, 257–264.Google Scholar
Fleming, C.A. 1957. A new species of fossil Chlamys from the Drygalski Agglomerate of Heard Island, Indian Ocean. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 4, 13–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hambrey, M.J., Smellie, J.L., Nelson, A.E. Johnson, J.S. 2008. Late Cenozoic glacier-volcano interaction on James Ross Island and adjacent areas, Antarctic Peninsula region. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 120, 709–731.Google Scholar
Howarth, R.J. McArthur, J.M. 1997. Statistics for strontium isotope stratigraphy: a robust LOWESS fit to the marine strontium isotope curve for the period 0 to 206 Ma, with look-up table for the derivation of numerical age. Journal of Geology, 105, 441–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ineson, J.R. 1989. Coarse-grained submarine fan and slope apron deposits in a Cretaceous back-arc basin, Antarctica. Sedimentology, 36, 793–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkers, H.A. 1998a. The Cockburn Island Formation; Late Pliocene interglacial sedimentation in the James Ross Basin, northern Antarctic Peninsula. Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 36, 63–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkers, H.A. 1998b. Stratigraphy of Antarctic late Cenozoic pectinid-bearing deposits. Antarctic Science, 10, 161–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkers, H.A. 2000. Gastropod predation patterns in Pliocene and Recent pectinid bivalves from Antarctica and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 43, 247–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkers, H.A. 2003. Late Cenozoic–Recent Pectinidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) of the Southern Ocean and neighbouring regions. Monographs of Marine Mollusca, 5, 1–125.Google Scholar
Jonkers, H.A. Kelley, S.P. 1998. A reassessment of the age of the Cockburn Island Formation, northern Antarctic Peninsula, and its palaeoclimatic implications. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 155, 737–740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jonkers, H.A., Lirio, J.M., del Valle, R.A. Kelley, S.P. 2002. Age and environment of Miocene–Pliocene glaciomarine deposits, James Ross Island, Antarctica. Geological Magazine, 139, 577–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundqvist, J., Lilliesköld, M. Östmark, K. 1995. Glacial and periglacial deposits of the Tumbledown Cliffs area, James Ross Island, West Antarctica. Geomorphology, 11, 205–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McArthur, J.M. Howarth, R.J. 2004. Sr isotope stratigraphy. In Gradstein, F., Ogg, J. & Smith, A.G., eds. A geological timescale 2004. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 96–105.Google Scholar
McArthur, J.M., Crame, J.A. Thirlwall, M. 2000. Definition of Late Cretaceous stage boundaries in Antarctica using strontium isotope stratigraphy. Journal of Geology, 108, 623–640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McArthur, J.M., Rio, D., Massari, F., Castradori, D., Bailey, T.R., Thirlwall, M. Houghton, S. 2006. A revised Pliocene record for marine 87Sr/86Sr used to date an interglacial event recorded in the Cockburn Island Formation, Antarctic Peninsula. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 242, 126–136.Google Scholar
Nelson, A.E., Smellie, J.L., Williams, M. Zalasiewicz, J. 2008. Late Miocene marine trace fossils from James Ross Island. Antarctic Science, 20, 591–592.Google Scholar
Nelson, A.E., Smellie, J.L., Hambrey, M.J., Willaims, M., Vautravers, M., Salzmann, U., McArthur, J.M. Regelous, M. 2009. Neogene glacigenic debris flows on James Ross Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula, and their implications for regional climate history. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 3138–3160.Google Scholar
Pirrie, D. 1991. Controls on the petrographic evolution of an active margin sedimentary sequence: the Larsen Basin, Antarctica. In Morton, A.C., Todd, S.P. & Haughton, P.D.W., eds. Developments in sedimentary provenance studies. Special Publication of the Geological Society of London, 57, 231–249.Google Scholar
Pirrie, D., Crame, J.A., Riding, J.B., Butcher, A.R. Taylor, P.D. 1997. Miocene glaciomarine sedimentation in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region; the Hobbs Glacier Formation, James Ross Island. Geological Magazine, 136, 745–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skilling, I.P. 2002. Basaltic pahoehoe lava-fed deltas: large-scale characteristics, clast generation, emplacement processes and environmental discrimination. In Smellie, J.L. & Chapman, M.G., eds. Volcano-ice interaction on Earth and Mars. Geological Society of London, Special Publications, 202, 91–113.Google Scholar
Smellie, J.L. 2006. The relative importance of supraglacial versus subglacial meltwater escape in basaltic subglacial tuya eruptions: an important unresolved conundrum. Earth Science Reviews, 74, 241–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smellie, J.L., McArthur, J.M., McIntosh, W.C. Esser, R. 2006. Late Neogene interglacial events in the James Ross Island region, northern Antarctic Peninsula, dated by Ar/Ar and Sr-isotope stratigraphy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 242, 169–187.Google Scholar
Smellie, J.L., Haywood, A.M., Hillenbrand, C.-D., Lunt, D.J. Valdes, P.J. 2009. Nature of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet during the Pliocene: geological evidence and modelling results compared. Earth Science Reviews, 94, 79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smellie, J.L., Johnson, J.S., McIntosh, W.C., Esser, R., Gudmundsson, M.T., Hambrey, M.J. van Wyk de Vries, B. 2008. Six million years of glacial history recorded in volcanic lithofacies of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group, Antarctic Peninsula. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 260, 122–148.Google Scholar
Speden, I.G. 1962. Fossiliferous Quaternary deposits in the McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 5, 746–777.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strelin, J. Malagnino, E.C. 1992. Geomorfologia de la isla James Ross. In Rinaldi, C.A., ed. Geologia de la isla James Ross. Buenos Aires: Instituto Antartico Argentino, 7–36.Google Scholar
Sykes, M.A. 1989. The petrology and tectonic significance of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group, Antarctica. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham, 218 pp. [Unpublished.]Google Scholar
Waller, T.R. 1991. Evolutionary relationships among commercial scallops (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Pectinidae). In Shumway, S.E., ed. Scallops: biology, ecology and aquaculture. Developments in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, 21, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1–73.Google Scholar
Waller, T.R. 1993. The evolution of “Chlamys” (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Pectinidae) in the tropical western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. American Malacological Bulletin, 10, 195–249.Google Scholar
Williams, M., Nelson, A.E., Smellie, J.L., Leng, M.J., Johnson, A.L.A., Jarram, D.R., Haywood, A.M., Peck, V.L., Zalsiewicz, J., Bennett, C. Schöne, B.R. 2010. Sea ice extent and seasonality for the Early Pliocene northern Weddell Sea. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 292, 306–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar