C. Part 2

1. Flat coastal areas at the northwestern end of Black Island were found to consist of relatively thin (less than 1 m) moraine overlying solid ice. These apparently have resulted from the grounding and subsequent ablation and melting of part of the Ross Ice Sheet flowing between Black Island and Brown Peninsula. Processes causing changes in the surface morphology with time were studied, and it may be possible to relate these to the formation of the higher level benches on Black Island.

   Large numbers of well-preserved marine macrofossils were collected from ice-cored moraine along the west coast of Black Island. This material, which also contains sea-bottom sediment with a rich microfauna, is believed to represent a past bottom fauna living beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. It is probable that the organisms were frozen into the base of the ice, and moved through to the surface as ice ablated from the top.

2. Older fossiliferous deposits of the Scallop Hill Formation were mapped and sampled around the northern end of Brown Peninsula. The type locality of this formation at Scallop Hill was also visited. Analysis of the fossils and sediment will give evidence regarding the conditions of deposition of the formation.

   Volcanic agglomerates outcropping extensively around Tuff Bluff and Frame Ridge at the northern end of Brown Peninsula were also mapped and sampled, and a number of distinct units could be distinguished and traced laterally. A change in the composition of the agglomerate with time from dominantly trachytic to dominantly basaltic was noted. The agglomerates may prove to be the source for the sediment of the Scallop Hill Formation.