Cenozoic paleontological characteristics and paleoenvironment of King George Island, West Antarctica

Abstract

A set of high-K and low-Al tholeiites intercalated with volcanic clastic rocks developed in King George Island (Western Antarctica), belonging to the island arc volcanic rock series. Moreover, the longest record of glacial deposition in Antarctica is preserved on the island, which provides the important evidence of the Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution. Fossils of plant leaves, sporopollen, stems, invertebrate animals and bird footprints which were abundantly found in the outcropped Cenozoic continental strata of King George Island, started to decrease from the Eocene to the early Miocene, showing an obvious downward trend of plant diversity, and the surviving sparse vegetation was only the tundra species around the glacier. The studies of ice marine strata and paleontology suggest that the late Oligocene marine strata mainly correspond to high-energy environment and the early Miocene marine strata correspond to low energy environment. This paper explores the Cenozoic paleontological characteristics and paleoenvironment of King George Island, and the investigations allow us to understand the trend of paleontological diversity and provide evidence for the reconstruction of the Antarctic paleoenvironment as well.

Keywords

• west antarctica
• cenozoic
• king george island
• paleontology
• paleoenvironment