The Shackleton Limestone is a

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondary ...

of the Byrd Group of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

. The age of the formation is established to be

Cambrian Stage 3 Cambrian Stage 3 is the still unnamed third stage of the Cambrian. It succeeds Cambrian Stage 2 and precedes Cambrian Stage 4, although neither its base nor top have been formally defined. The plan is for its lower boundary to correspond approxi ...

, dated at ranging from 520 to 516 Ma. This period correlates with the

End-Botomian mass extinction The end-Botomian mass extinction event, also known as the late early Cambrian extinctions, refer to two extinction intervals that occurred during Stages 4 and 5 of the Cambrian Period, approximately 513 to 509 million years ago. Estimates for the ...

. Fossils of

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

s and '' Marocella mira'' and ''

Dailyatia The camenellans, consisting of the genera ''Camenalla'', ''Dailyatia'', ''Kennardia'', ''Kelanella'', '' Wufengella'' and ''Lapworthella'', are a (probably monophyletic) group of Tommotiid invertebrates from the Cambrian The Cambrian Period ...

'' have been found in the formation, named after

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of A ...

, who led a failed

expedition Expedition may refer to: * An exploration, journey, or voyage undertaken by a group of people especially for discovery and scientific research Places * Expedition Island, a park in Green River, Wyoming, US * Expedition Range, a mountain range in ...

into Antarctica. At time of deposition, the

Antarctic Plate The Antarctic Plate is a tectonic plate containing the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau, and some remote islands in the Southern Ocean and other surrounding oceans. After breakup from Gondwana (the southern part of the supercont ...

has been established to be just south of the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can al ...

as part of the supercontinent

Pannotia Pannotia (from Greek: '' pan-'', "all", '' -nótos'', "south"; meaning "all southern land"), also known as the Vendian supercontinent, Greater Gondwana, and the Pan-African supercontinent, was a relatively short-lived Neoproterozoic supercontinent ...

, contrasting with its present position at 82 degrees southern latitude.Shackleton Limestone
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cre ...

.org

Geology

The formation, named by Laird in 1963, crops out in the

Churchill Mountains The Churchill Mountains are a mountain range group of the Transantarctic Mountains System, located in the Ross Dependency region of Antarctica. They border on the western side of the Ross Ice Shelf, between Byrd Glacier and Nimrod Glacier. Se ...

, part of the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria Land to Coats Land. ...

of southwestern Antarctica. The most complete exposures are in the

Holyoake Range Holyoake Range () is a mountain range in the southern section of the Churchill Mountains, extending in a northwest–southeast direction for about between Prince Philip Glacier and Errant Glacier. It and the Churchill Mountains are part of the Tr ...

.Myrow et al., 2002, p.1073 Paleontological data and carbon isotope stratigraphy indicate that the Shackleton Limestone ranges from lower

Atdabanian Cambrian Stage 3 is the still unnamed third stage of the Cambrian. It succeeds Cambrian Stage 2 and precedes Cambrian Stage 4, although neither its base nor top have been formally defined. The plan is for its lower boundary to correspond approxi ...

through upper

Botomian Cambrian Stage 4 is the still unnamed fourth Stage (geology), stage of the Cambrian and the upper stage of Cambrian Series 2. It follows Cambrian Stage 3 and lies below the Wuliuan. The lower boundary has not been formally defined by the Internatio ...

. The formation is a thick carbonate deposit with a lower unit of unfossiliferous interbedded

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tec ...

and

, overlies the Late Proterozoic

argillaceous Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay mineral ...

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites w ...

Goldie Formation and underlies the Starshot Formation. Other

lithologies The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples, or with low magnification microscopy. Physical characteristics include colour, texture, grain size, and composition. Lith ...

noted in the Shackleton Limestone are

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

with

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of d ...

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** C ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especia ...

.Laird et al., 1971, p.428 The abrupt transition from the Shackleton Limestone to a large-scale, upward coarsening

siliciclastic Siliciclastic (or ''siliclastic'') rocks are clastic noncarbonate sedimentary rocks that are composed primarily of silicate minerals, such as quartz or clay minerals. Siliciclasic rock types include mudrock, sandstone, and conglomerate Conglome ...

succession records deepening of the outer platform and then deposition of an eastward-prograding molassic wedge. The various formations of the upper Byrd Group show general stratigraphic and age equivalence, such that coarse-grained

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

deposits of the Douglas Conglomerate are proximal equivalents of the marginal-marine to shelf deposits of the Starshot Formation.Myrow et al., 2002, p.1070 The sandstone-rich lower member of the Shackleton Limestone is exposed at Cotton Plateau beneath Panorama Point, where it consists of up to of interbedded white- to cream-weathering, vitreous,

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

and brown-weathering, white, fine-grained

dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dol ...

grainstone Under the Dunham classification (Dunham, 1962) system of limestones, a grainstone is defined as a grain-supported carbonate rock that contains less than 1% mud-grade material. This definition has recently been clarified as ''a carbonate-dominat ...

. These beds are in fault contact with the adjacent Goldie Formation.Myrow et al., 2002, p.1075 The formation postdates the

Beardmore Orogeny The Beardmore orogeny was a mountain building event in the Neoproterozoic affecting what is now Antarctica. The event is preserved in the Trans-Antarctic Mountains, potentially in the Shackleton Range and by argillite-greywacke series in the Horlick ...

of the

Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago. It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is ...

,Elliot, 1975, p.54 and was deformed by the

Ross Orogeny The Ross orogeny was a mountain building event in Antarctica in the early Paleozoic. The ancestral (also termed proto-) Trans-Antarctic Mountains were uplifted earlier by the Beardmore orogeny but had eroded as a broad epicratonic sea flooded mu ...

.Stump et al., 2006, p.2

Fossil content

The formation has provided fossils of

s such as '' Holyoakia granulosa'', '' Pagetides (Discomesites) spinosus'', '' Lemdadella antarcticae'', '' Kingaspis (?) convexus'', '' Yunnanocephalus longioccipitalis'', and '' Onchocephalina (?) spinosa''.Palmer & Rowell, 1995 Other fossils found are '' Marocella mira'', and '' Dailyatia odyssei'' and ''D. braddocki''.Skovsted, 2015, p.16

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{cite LSA , last=Stump , first=Edmund , last1=Gootee , first1=Brian , last2=Talarico , first2=Franco , year=2006 , title=Tectonic Model for Development of the Byrd Glacier Discontinuity and Surrounding Regions of the Transantarctic Mountains during the Neoproterozoic – Early Paleozoic , url=https://epic.awi.de/17003/1/Stu2006d.pdf , publisher=Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York , pages=45–54 , accessdate=2018-05-22 Geologic formations of Antarctica Paleozoic Antarctica Limestone formations Sandstone formations Shale formations Conglomerate formations Dolomite formations Shallow marine deposits Cambrian southern paleotropical deposits Paleontology in Antarctica

Geology

Fossil content

See also

References

Bibliography