High-resolution marine sonar swath mapping, covering an area of ca. 33 km2 in the vicinity of the Windmill Islands (67° S, 110° E), Wilkes Land, east Antarctica, permits visualisation and description of the near-shore geomorphology of the seafloor environment in unprecedented detail and provides invaluable insight into the ice-sheet history of the region. Mesoproterozoic metamorphic basement exhibits prominent sets of parallel northwest-trending linear fault sets that probably formed during fragmentation of eastern Gondwana during the Mesozoic. The fault systems appear to control regional coastal physiographic features and have, in places, been preferentially eroded and exploited by subsequent glacial activity. Possibly the earliest formed glacially-derived geomorphological elements are networks of sub-glacial meltwater channels which are preserved on bedrock platforms and ridges. Subtle glacial lineations and streamlined landforms record evidence of the westward expansion of the grounded, Law Dome ice sheet margin, probably during the late Pleistocene Last Glacial Maximum, the direction of which coincides with glacial striae on onshore crystalline bedrock outcrops. The most striking glacial geomorphological features are sets of arcuate ridges confined mostly within glacially excavated `U-shaped valleys, exploiting and developed along bedrock fault sets. These ridge sets are interpreted as `push moraines or grounding zone features, formed during episodic retreat of highly channelised, topographically controlled ice-streams following ice surging, possibly in response to local environmental forcing during the mid-late Holocene. Minor post-glacial marine sedimentation is preserved in several small (1 km2) `isolated marine basins with shallow seaward sills.

A short article as a side bar in the Australian Antarctic Magazine published by the Australian Antarctic Division. The sidebar article will accompany a longer article by Lt Peter Waring of the Royal Australian Navy survey team that conducted a multibeam survey in Casey Harbour during season 2013-14

The Archaean cratonic block of the Vestfold Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land is one of only three well-documented examples in East Antarctica. It is characterised by tectonically interlayered tonalitic to granitiC orthogneisses (Mossel gneiss) and garnetiferous paragneisses (Chelnok supracrustal assemblage) as well as sub- ordinate units of predominantly mafic granulite (Tryne meta-volcanics). This sequence is cut by a second suite of orthogneisses (Crooked Lake gneiSS), ranging in composition from gabbro-diorite to tonalite and granite, which was emplaced synchronously with the last major phase of deformation. Cutting the gneisses are several suites of Proterozoic tholeiitic dykes, including a high-Mg suite, which range in age from about 2350 Ma to 1300 Ma. Most dykes are unmetamorphosed, but, in the southwestern part of the VestfoldHills, high-pressure garnet-bearing assemblages developed during a late Proterozoic (about 1100 Ma) thermal event. Granulite facies gneisses that crop out southwest of the Vestfold Block, along the coast of Prydz Bay, show the regional effect of this younger metamorphism and form part of an extensive late Proterozoic high-grade terrain, which makes up much of the East Antarctic Shield. Gneisses in the Rauer Group of Islands, within 30 km of the Vestfold Hills, are lithologically similar (predominantly orthogneisses) to those of the Vestfold Block, and contain metamorphosed relics of Vestfold dykes; however, they include only a minor component derived by remetamorphism of Archaean continental crustal rocks. In contrast, gneisses further to the southwest were mainly derived from aluminous sedimentary protoliths, and are quite different in composition to those of the Vestfold Block and Rauer Group. They do not appear to have been intruded by mafic dykes (mafic granulite is very rare) and apparently represent a Proterozoic cover sequence of similar age to metasedimentary sequences in MacRobertson Land. Intrusion of locally fayalite- bearing granitic rocks took place about 500 Ma ago.

Magnetic observatories capable of providing long-period results in absolute measures have been operated in Australia and its territories on and off since 1840. As the first such observatory (that at Gottingen, built by Gauss) was erected only eight years earlier, a long tradition has been established in the observational aspects of the science. In 1979 six observatories are operating: one in Papua New Guinea (recently transferred to that countrys Geological Survey), three in Australia, one in the sub-Antarctic, and one in Antarctica. The number and disposition of continental observatories is inadequate. The factors which should be considered in planning any future network are outlined.

Upper Permian silicified gymnospenn woods from the Bainmedart Coal Measures (Amery Group) near Beaver Lake, East Antarctica, are described as two new species, Australoxylon bainii and A. mondii, on the basis of morphometric and qualitative characters - including ray anatomy, tracheid shape, and cross-field pit structure. Australoxylon mondii has two forms, one of which is characterised by a distinctive ray architecture comprising semidetached rows of ray cells with intervening gaps bridged by sporadic joins. Wood of Vertebraria could not be distinguished from Australoxylon mondii on microanatomical characters, which suggests that these two organ taxa may represent different parts of the same glossopterid plant. Many characters used traditionally in wood taxonomy could not be applied owing to substantial variation or preservational differences both within and between specimens. Three types of presumed biogenic cavities occur in the woods. Coprolite-containing cavities distributed in seasonal bands represent rare evidence for Permian wood-boring arthropods. Other, irregularly distributed cavities and appositions were probably fonned by pathogenic fungi. Growth-ring analysis indicates a markedly seasonal climate with low to moderate interseasonal variation in wood production. Significant intraseasonal influences on growth are also evidenced by numerous false rings.

In its first three years, the Antarctic CRC s Natural Variability Program has focussed research effort on understanding changes in the extent of the East Antarctic ice sheet, the sedimentary processes and biogeochemical cycles affecting shelf sedimentation, and the palaeoceanography of the Southern Ocean. Seismic data from the Prydz trough-mouth fan indicate that it contains a high-resolution time series of the Plio-Pleistocene activity of the Lambert Glacier system. The fan has been prograding from the eastern side of Prydz Bay at least since the Miocene and it contains Plio-Pleistocene sediments, which are 0.8- 1.2 s TWT thick beneath the current shelf break. Radiocarbon dating of shelf sediments indicates that deposition of a Holocene siliceous mud and ooze layer was initiated at about 10 ka BP on the Mac. Robertson Shelf, which is interpreted as coinciding with the retreat of an expanded ice sheet from the shelf break. Geochemical analyses of sediment cores from the Mac. Robertson Shelf suggest significant differences in sediment accumulation between the inner and outer shelf during the Holocene. A core from the outer shelf suggests three episodes of intense diatom production separated by periods of around 1500 years, although long-term average sediment accumulation rates appear to be rather uniform for this location during the middle and late Holocene. In contrast, results for a core from the inner shelf suggest an approximately 7-fold increase in average sediment accumulation rate from the mid to late Holocene, with roughly comparable increases in the accumulation of both biogenic and lithogenic material. Palaeoceanographic studies of the Southern Ocean, using planktonic foraminifera, diatoms and alkenone unsaturation ratios, indicate larger sea surface temperature amplitudes over wider areas of the Southern Ocean during the last glacial maximum than previously suggested by CLIMAP. Our studies offer the possibility of improvements to reconstructed glacial boundary conditions, with wider areal coverage, greater reliability of estimates , and the opportunity for estimation of seasonal dynamics.

The Mac. Robertson Shelf and western Prydz Bay, on the continental shelf of East Antarctica, were the sites of seismic/coring programs in February- March 1995 and 1997, and of an opportunistic sampling in 1993. Seismic data indicate a prograding sequence, about 200 m thick, dominated by clinoforms, in Palaeogene sediment. Core sampling was accompanied by deployment of a conductivity/temperature/depth probe (CTD), bottom camera and bottom-sediment grab. The Palaeogene sediments overlie Jurassic-Cretaceous sediments or Precambrian basement, and are overlain by thin, olive-green Quaternary diatomaceous ooze and sand. Sampling from the walls and floors of valleys crossing the shelf was on targets defined seismically, and recovered: Weakly lithified black carbonaceous or brown mudstone and siltstone with Paleocene (P4 and Paleocene undifferentiated), Middle Eocene with Globigerinatheka, and other Palaeogene foraminiferid faunas; Paleocene and Eocene pollen, spores and dinoflagellates; Sediments containing a mixture of Palaeogene fossils and Pliocene to Late Pleistocene/ Holocene diatoms and foraminifera; and Evidence of recycling from Permian, Jurassic and Cretaceous sequences. The Palaeogene sediments from the Neilsen Basin and Iceberg Alley contain glauconite and pyrite (the former often, and the latter rarely, pseudomorphic after radiolaria) and, in places, abundant carbonised wood. Radiolaria, teeth and bone fragments are rare. Foraminifera are rare and very dominantly small and calcareous with very few planktonics. The rocks appear to be part of a coastal plain sediment sequence, all weakly lithified, which includes red muddy sandstone and the fossil-bearing lithologies. It is not clear if all the fossil material and enclosing sediments are in situ or have been reworked as fragments into later glacial sediments. The faunas all appear to have accumulated in an inner continental shelf, fully marine environment with temperate-climate water temperature, and where sediment input was high compared with biogenic carbonate production. Several depositional models meet these criteria. Palynology helps define Paleocene and mid-Late Eocene depositional events, the latter marked by the Transantarctic dinocyst flora. The marine Palaeogene can be related to depositional cycles well documented from other parts of the world.

A well-preserved Late Triassic palynoflora from the upper Flagstone Bench Formation, Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica, contains taxa that are also widely distributed in coeval Tethyan Laurasian assemblages. The most common and distinctive of these elements in the present assemblage are: Enzonalasporites vigens, E. densus, cf. Ellipsovelatisporites sp., Minutosaccus crenulatus, cf. Rimaesporites aquilonalis, Ovalipollis ovalis, Samaropollenites speciosus, and Duplicisporites scurrilis. The assemblage is assigned to the Australian Minutosaccus crenulatus Zone, and considered to be of Norian age. Gondwanan palynofloras containing these Laurasian elements are assigned to the Onslow Microflora, which is represented by Middle and Late Triassic palynomorph assemblages from Madagascar, western and northern Australia, East Africa, and Peninsular India. Occurrences of the Onslow Microflora appear to be confined to sediments deposited in palaeolatitudes between about 40o-30oS. As well as climatic controls, we suggest that other factors influenced the distribution of the parent floral communities. In particular, availability of migration pathways along Tethyan coastal plains, that were exposed during periods of sealevel regression, was an important factor controlling the rapid dispersal of certain Triassic plants. Marine influence on the present assemblage is evident by the rare spinose acritarchs, and one specimen of a dinocyst of the Shublikodinium-Rhaetogonyaulax plexus; this is the first record of a Triassic dinocyst from Antarctica.

A review, mainly of East Antarctic late Cainozoic (post 40 Ma) geological and geomorphological evidence, supports the hypothesis of the continuous presence of an ice sheet, of about the present size, since the late Miocene. Evidence is presented and the view advanced that, during the late Wisconsin maximum of isotope stage 2, ice was not nearly as thick or extensive over the continental shelf as required by the model of maximum Antarctic glaciation, Some of the factors influencing the contribution of Antarctica to post-glacial sea-level rise are discussed. It is considered that Antarcticas contribution was probably considerably less than previously estimated.

High-grade metamorphic and felsic igneous rocks from the northern Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica, have been characterised geochemically and dated from SHRIMP zircon geochronological data. Around 980 Ma ago, voluminous magmas representing a combination of mantle-derived and intracrustal melts, including orthopyroxene-quartz monzonite (charnockite) on Loewe Massif and granitic and syenitic intrusions on Mount Collins, were emplaced during a regional high-grade tectonothermal event. Garnet leucogneiss sheets on Mount McCarthy, the products of local partial melting, were also emplaced at about this time. The geology of Fisher Massif is exceptional in that a ca 1280-Ma metavolcanic sequence and coeval granodiorite have been metamorphosed only up to the lower amphibolite facies, and intruded by a ca 1020-Ma biotite granite. None of the analysed sarnples shows in its isotopic systematics the effects of 500-Ma events, prominent elsewhere in East Antarctica. Rare inherited components 1850-1900 Ma old were found in some samples. A paragneiss on Mount Meredith yielded 2500- 2800-Ma and 1800-2100-Ma detrital zircon populations.