Monday, 27 August 2007
1.PS-11
Provenance of recycled stromatolites from the Polonez Cove Formation (Oligocene) of King George Island, West Antarctica
Andrzej Gazdzicki, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, Warszawa, 00-818, Poland
Summary Over 50 specimens of isolated, hemispherical in shape with well-marked multilayered growth stromatolite structures (up to 9 cm in diameter) were recovered from glaciomarine sediments of the Polonez Cove Formation (Oligocene) on King George Island (South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica). Their stratigraphic setting and the most probably Cambrian age suggest that they were recycled by the processes of iceberg-rafting into the sediments of the Polonez Cove Formation during the Oligocene glacial event (Polonez Glaciation). Stromatolites most probably derive from sedimentary Cambrian rocks with origins in the Ellsworth and Transantarctic Mountains. It should also be noted that until now such stromatolite structures have not been reported from Antarctica.