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A detailed climate proxy record based on δ18O, δ13O, and grey index of a well-dated stalagmite from Cold Air Cave in the Makapansgat Valley of north-eastern South Africa suggests that regional precipitation, temperatures and vegetation oscillated markedly and rapidly over the last ∼6500 years on centennial and multi-decadal scales. The mid-Holocene prior to 5200 years ago was humid and warm. A fundamental transition occurred 3200 years ago, leading to drier and cooler conditions that culminated at 1750 AD. Comparisons with ice core records suggest synchronous changes implicating rapid global teleconnections.

The formation of Gondwana during the late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian times (550-530 Ma) was traditionally viewed as the welding of two, more or less contiguous, Proterozoic continental masses called East and West Gondwana. The notion of a united West Gondwana is no longer tenable as a wealth of geochronologic and structural data indicate major orogenesis amongst its constituent cratons during the final stages of greater Gondwana assembly. The idea that East Gondwana may also have formed through the amalgamation of a collage of cratonic nuclei during the Cambrian is controversial. Recent paleomagnetic, geochronologic and structural data from elements of East Gondwana indicate that its formation may have extended well into Cambrian time. Thus, the terms ‘East’ and ‘West’ Gondwana may be relegated to convenient geographical terms rather than any connotation of tectonic coherence during the Proterozoic. In addition, the paleomagnetic data also challenge the conventional views of the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia and the SWEAT fit. Alternative variants including Protopangea and AUSWUS are not supported by paleomagnetic data during the interval 800–700 Ma.

Ages of six volcanic and plutonic rocks on Barton Peninsula, King George Island, were determined using 40Ar/39Ar and K-Ar isotopic systems. The 40Ar/39Ar and K-Ar ages of basaltic andesite and diorite range from 48 My to 74 My and systematically decrease toward the upper stratigraphic section. Two specimens of basaltic andesite which occur in the lowermost sequence of the peninsula, however, apparently define two distinct plateau ages of 52-53 My and 119-120 My. The latter is interpreted to represent the primary cooling age of basaltic andesite, whereas the former is interpreted as the thermally-reset age caused by the intrusion of Tertiary granitic pluton. The isochron ages calculated from the isotope correlation diagram corroborate our interpretation based on the apparent plateau ages. It is therefore likely that volcanism was active during the Early Cretaceous on Barton Peninsula. When the K-Ar ages of previous studies are taken into account with our result, the ages of basaltic andesite in the northern part of the Barton Peninsula are significantly older than those in the southern part. Across the north-west-south-east trending Barton fault bounding the two parts, there are significant differences in geochronologic and geologic aspects.

Antarctic climate history has been dominated by events and turning points with causes that are poorly understood. To fill the gaps in our knowledges new effort is underway in the international geologic community to acquire and coordinate the circum-Antarctic geologic data needed to derive and model paleoenvironments of the past 130 m.y. The effort, which focuses principally on using shallow (<100 m) stratigraphic drilling and coring to acquire the geologic data, is being led by the Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy Project (ANTOSTRAT), a group that works under the aegis of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). About 40 scientists from 12 countries met this past summer in Wellington, New Zealand, at an ANTOSTRAT meeting to discuss strategies for implementing the desired paleoenvironmental field and modeling studies. The meeting was held in conjunction with the 8th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences.

A light, mining drill rig deployed from the stern of a research vessel has been used to carry out shallow drilling in 212 m water depth on the continental shelf in the eastern Weddell Sea. Penetration was 15 m below the seabed with 18% recovery in the 31 hours available for the experiment. The recovered glacigenic sediments are predominantly volcanic material of basaltic and andesitic composition with petrological characteristics and age similar to the continental flood basalts exposed in Vestfjella, about 130 km upstream from the drill site. The sediments include a reworked marine Miocene diatom flora. The material documents oscillations of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet over the past 30 ka. The lowermost diamicton probably represents a deformation till, and the grounding line retreated past the drill site 30 km from the shelf edge about 30 kyr BP. A readvance occurred during the Late Wisconsin Glacial Maximum. Assuming a reservoir correction of 1300 yr, marine conditions existed at the site between 10.1-7 kyr BP, and later at least between 2.8 and 2.5 kyr BP. The stratigraphy at the site has been disturbed by iceberg ploughing and/or contact between the ice shelf and the sea floor during local advances after 2.5 kyr BP.

Continental flood basalts (CFBs) of Jurassic age make up the Vestfjella mountains of western Dronning Maud Land and demonstrate an Antarctic extension of the Karoo large igneous province. A detailed geochemical study of the 120-km-long Vestfjella range shows the CFB suite to consist mainly of three intercalated basaltic rock types designated CT1, CT2 and CT3 (chemical types 1, 2 and 3) that exhibit different incompatible trace element ratios. CT1 and CT2 of north Vestfjella record wide ranges of Nd and Sr isotopic compositions with initial εNd and εSr ranging from +7·6 to −16·0 and −16 to +65, respectively. The southern Vestfjella is dominated by CT3 with near-chondritic εNd (+2·0 to −4·1) and εSr (−11 to +19). A volumetrically minor suite of ocean island basalt (OIB-)like CT4 dykes (εNd +3·6, εSr +1) cuts the lava sequence in north Vestfjella. The pronounced isotopic differences suggest different magmatic plumbing systems for the heterogeneous CT1 and CT2 suites and the relatively homogeneous CT3 lavas. This is further supported by the palaeoflow directions, which point to major source regions to the north (CT1 and CT2) and east (CT3) of Vestfjella. These source regions can be associated with two contemporaneous major lithospheric thinning zones that permitted magma emplacement and controlled the melting of upper-mantle sources in the Jurassic Dronning Maud Land. The CT1 and CT2 magmas utilized the northern zone of thinning and were emplaced into the 3 Ga Grunehogna craton, whereas the CT3 magmas were emplaced through thinned Proterozoic Maud Belt lithosphere. Trace element and isotopic studies of the identified magma types reveal a complex history of fractionation and contamination at different lithospheric levels. All extrusive rock types show evidence of crustal contamination but this had rather small impact on their diagnostic trace element ratios. Much stronger overprint, in the CT1 and CT2 suites, resulted from contamination with veined Archaean lithospheric mantle, which produced wide ranges of isotopic and highly incompatible element ratios. CT3, in turn, does not show evidence of interaction with the Proterozoic lithospheric mantle. The high-εNd endmembers of CT1, CT2 and CT3 probably closely resemble uncontaminated mantle-derived magmas and indicate three different mantle sources. The CT2 primary magmas were derived from light rare earth element (LREE)-depleted, slightly large ion lithophile element (LILE)-enriched sources, whereas data on the volumetrically preponderant CT1 and CT3 point to variably LREE-enriched, strongly LILE-enriched sources. The sources of CT1, CT2 and CT3 may record large-scale lateral heterogeneity generated by subduction-contamination of the Gondwanan upper mantle. The OIB-like CT4 dykes probably reflect asthenospheric heterogeneities that were unrelated to the proposed subduction-contamination.

The Holocene glacial and climatic development in Antarctica differed considerably from that in the Northern Hemisphere. Initial deglaciation of inner shelf and adjacent land areas in Antarctica dates back to between 10-8 Kya, when most Northern Hemisphere ice sheets had already disappeared or diminished considerably. The continued deglaciation of currently ice-free land in Antarctica occurred gradually between ca. 8-5 Kya. A large southern portion of the marine-based Ross Ice Sheet disintegrated during this late deglaciation phase. Some currently ice-free areas were deglaciated as late as 3 Kya. Between 8-5 Kya, global glacio-eustatically driven sea level rose by 10-17m, with 4-8 m of this increase occurring after 7 Kya. Since the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets had practically disappeared by 8-7 Kya, we suggest that Antarctic deglaciation caused a considerable part of the global sea level rise between 8-7 Kya, and most of it between 7-5 Kya. The global mid-Holocene sea level high stand, broadly dated to between 8-4 Kya, and the Littorina-Tapes transgressions in Scandinavia and simultaneous transgressions recorded from sites e.g. in Svalbard and Greenland, dated to 7-5 Kya, probably reflect input of meltwater from the Antarctic deglaciation.

Whole rock and mineral compositions of volcanic rocks collected during the Norwegian Polarsirkel expedition (1978/79) to the volcanic istand of Bovetøya (close to the Bouvet Triple Junction) are discussed and compared with previously published data from the island. The rock types, hawaiite, benmoreite, and peralkaline trachyte and rhyolite (comendite) are related to each other by crystal fractionation processes. The trace element and radiogenic isotope signatures displayed by the Bouvetøya rocks are those of a moderately enriched oceanic island suite. On several isotope plots Bouvetøya rocks fall on or close to mixing lines between the euriched EM-l and HIMU mantle components. Mixing between depleted morb mantle (DMM) and euriched components is not likely. Thus, Bouvetøya displays a typical plume signature.

The central sector of Mühlig-Hofmannfjellet (3°E/71°S) in western Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctic shield) is dominated by large intrusive bodies of predominantly orthopyroxene-bearing quartz syenites (charnockites). Metasedimentary rocks are rare; however, two distinct areas with banded gneiss–marble–quartzite sequences of sedimentary origin were found during the Norwegian Antarctic Research Expedition NARE 1989/90. Cordierite-bearing metapelitic gneisses from two different localities contain the characteristic mineral assemblage: cordierite + garnet + biotite + K-feldspar + plagioclase + quartz ± sillimanite ± spinel. Thermobarometry indicates equilibration conditions of about 650°C and 4 kbar. Associated orthopyroxene–garnet granulites, on the other hand, revealed pressures of about 8 kbar and temperatures of 750°C. The earlier granulite facies metamorphism is not well preserved in the cordierite gneisses as a result of excess K-feldspar combined with interaction with an H2O-rich fluid phase, probably released by the cooling intrusives. These two features allowed the original high-grade K-feldspar + garnet assemblages to recrystallize as cordierite–biotite–sillimanite gneisses, completely re-equilibrating them. Phase relationships indicate that the younger metamorphic event occurred in the presence of a fluid phase that varied in composition between the lithologies.