Preliminary report on diatoms from the deep lake terraces, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

Abstract

Deep lake (latitudes 68~'22' and 68~'40'S longitudes 77~'49' and 78~'33'E) is one of the two most saline lakes in the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. During December 1974, the Antarctic Division of the Australian Department of Science and Technology collected 72 samples (number ACTC-1 through ACTC-36 for samples from the southeastern shore terrace and ACTC-37 through ACTC-72 for samples from the western shore terrace). Samples were collected at 1.6-meter intervals. The sediment composition, faunal content, and diatom structures of the samples was studied. The sediment is loose, powdery, and unconsolidated. It is composed for coarse, angular, and rounded grains of sand to siltsize fractions. Its constituents are pyroxene, garnet, biotite, and quartz with fragments of pyroxenite, quartzite, permatite, gneiss, and glacial debris. Halite and mirabilite crystals are common. A general study of foraminifera of the lake sediments of the Vestfold Hills was made and the results are presented here