Mid-Jurassic age for the Botany Bay Group: Implications for Weddell Sea Basin creation and southern hemisphere biostratigraphy

New U-Pb zircon ion-microprobe ages from the alluvial conglomerates and flood plain sediments of the Botany Bay Group demonstrate that sedimentation occurred at c. 167 Ma, coeval with rift-related silicic volcanism in the northern Antarctic Pensula. In contrast, rift-related volcanism and sedimentation in the southern Antarctic Peninsula (Latady Basin) occurred at c. 183 Ma. The new data indicate that syn-rift sedimentation and volcanism was diachronous from south to north, consistent with early opening of the Weddell Sea embayment by anti-clockwise rotation of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Mid-Jurassic. A definitive date for the Botany Bay Group floras has important implications for Southern Hemisphere biostratigraphic correlations.

Publication Details

  • Type

    Journal Article

  • Title

    Mid-Jurassic age for the Botany Bay Group: Implications for Weddell Sea Basin creation and southern hemisphere biostratigraphy

  • Year

    2005

  • Author(s)

    Hunter, M.A., Cantrill, D.J., Flowerdew, M.J. and Millar, I.L.

  • Journal

    Journal of the Geological Society

  • Volume

    162

  • Issue

    5

  • Page(s)

    745-748

  • URL

    https://doi.org/10.1144/0016-764905-051

  • People

Charity and Education