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Shell beds from the Low Head Member (Polonez Cove Formation, early Oligocene) at King George Island, west Antarctica: new insights on facies analysis, taphonomy and environmental significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2014

Fernanda Quaglio ,
Lucas Veríssimo Warren ,
Luiz Eduardo Anelli ,
Paulo Roberto Dos Santos ,
Antonio Carlos Rocha-Campos ,
Andrzej Gaździcki ,
Pedro Carlos Strikis ,
Renato Pirani Ghilardi ,
Andressa Barraviera Tiossi  and
Marcello Guimarães Simões
Fernanda Quaglio*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-080, São Paulo, Brazil
Lucas Veríssimo Warren
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Avenida 24-A, 1515, CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil
Luiz Eduardo Anelli
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-080, São Paulo, Brazil
Paulo Roberto Dos Santos
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-080, São Paulo, Brazil
Antonio Carlos Rocha-Campos
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-080, São Paulo, Brazil
Andrzej Gaździcki
Affiliation:
Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warszawa, Poland
Pedro Carlos Strikis
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Lago, 562, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-080, São Paulo, Brazil
Renato Pirani Ghilardi
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Faculdade de Ciências de Bauru, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Avenida Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, CEP 17033-360, Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
Andressa Barraviera Tiossi
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Faculdade de Ciências de Bauru, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Avenida Engenheiro Luiz Edmundo Carrijo Coube, CEP 17033-360, Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil
Marcello Guimarães Simões
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, CEP 18618-000, Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil
*
quaglio@usp.br
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Abstract

Shell bed levels in the Low Head Member of the early Oligocene Polonez Cove Formation at King George Island, West Antarctica, are re-interpreted based on sedimentological and taphonomic data. The highly fossiliferous Polonez Cove Formation is characterized by basal coastal marine sandstones, overlain by conglomerates and breccias deposited in fan-delta systems. The shell beds are mainly composed of pectinid bivalve shells of Leoclunipecten gazdzickii and occur in the basal portion of the Low Head Member. Three main episodes of bioclastic deposition are recorded. Although these shell beds were previously interpreted as shelly tempestites, we present an alternative explanation: the low fragmentation rates and low size sorting of the bioclasts resulted from winnowing due to tidal currents (background or diurnal condition) in the original bivalve habitat. The final deposition (episodic condition) was associated with subaqueous gravity driven flows. This new interpretation fits with the scenario of a prograding fan-delta front, which transported shell accumulations for short distances near the depositional site, possibly between fair-weather and storm wave bases. This work raises the notion that not every shell bed with similar sedimentological and taphonomic features (such as geometry, basal contact, degree of packing and shell orientation in the matrix) is made in the same way.

Keywords

Antarctic coquinaLeoclunipectenpecten conglomeratepectinidssedimentologyshell-bed genesis
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 400 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2014 

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