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The Permian Mackellar Formation in the central Transantarctic Mountains is a fine-grained siliciclastic succession, which was deposited in a marine to brackish inland sea (Mackellar Sea) along the hinterland of the Gondwana margin. The Mackellar strata were deposited in an elongate, trough-shaped basin oriented subparallel to the present trend of the Transantarctic Mountains. At the head of the Robb Glacier, the Mackellar beds include, in the middle of the succession, a mass transport deposit, which exhibits folding and thrusting. Structural data (e.g. facing direction and axial planes of overturned folds, orientation and vergence of thrust faults) indicate axial transport down the elongate depositional basin. Unconformable relationships to strata overlying the mass transport deposit suggest reactivation and doming of the deposit following its initial emplacement. Subsequently there was partial collapse of the toe-ward part of the extant deposit along a listric fault, the result of loading by deltaic sandstones of the overlying Fairchild Formation 

We propose that a “local first” approach should be applied to the interpretation of provenance indicators in glacigenic sediments of all depositional ages, especially where the glacier flow path is poorly constrained and the records of potential source lithologies are incomplete. Provenance proxies, specifically U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology, of glacigenic sediments are commonly used to infer the size and distribution of past ice centers, which are in turn used to inform ancient climate reconstructions. Interpretations of these proxies often assume that similar provenance signals between glacigenic units of the same depositional age are evidence that they were deposited by the same glacier, even when those units are, not infrequently, separated by thousands of kilometers. Though glaciers are capable of transporting sediment great distances, this assumption is problematic as it does not acknowledge observations from the geologic records of Pleistocene ice sheets that show provenance proxies in glacial sediments are most likely to reflect proximal (within 100 km) sediment sources located along a specific flow path. In a “local first” approach, provenance indicators are first compared to local source lithologies. If the indicator cannot be attributed to proximal sources, only then should progressively more distal sources be investigated. Applying a local first approach to sediment provenance in ancient glacial systems may result in significant revisions to paleo ice sheet reconstructions. The effectiveness of the local first approach is demonstrated here by comparing new U-Pb detrital zircon dates from the Permo-Carboniferous glacigenic Wynyard Fm with progressively distal source lithologies along the glacier’s inferred flow path. The Wynyard Fm and source lithologies were compared using an inverse Monte-Carlo unmixing model (DZMix). All measured Wynyard Fm detrital zircon dates can be attributed to zircon sources within 33 km of the sample location along the glacier’s flow path. This interpretation of a proximal detrital zircon provenance does not conflict with the popular interpretation made from sedimentological observations that the Wynyard Fm was deposited by a large, temperate outlet glacier or ice stream that flowed south-to-north across western Tasmania. Overall, a local first approach to glacial sediment provenance, though more challenging than direct comparisons between glacigenic sedimentary deposits, has the potential to elucidate the complex histories and flow paths of glacial sedimentary systems of all depositional ages. 

A Era Glacial Neopaleozoica (362 a 256 Ma) deixou um registro nas bacias sedimentares Gondwânicas na forma de depósitos e feições erosivas glaciogênicas. A glaciação é registrada na Bacia do Paraná nos estratos do Grupo Itararé e em sua discordância basal caracterizada por diversas estruturas erosivas. Estruturas erosivas, como superfícies estriadas, e diamictitos são amplamente empregados tanto na caracterização de aspectos paleoglaciológicos como na definição do paleofluxo de geleiras e suas áreas-fontes. Entretanto, superfícies estriadas também são geradas por quilhas de icebergs, assim como diamictitos são gerados por outros processos não-glaciais. No sul do Brasil, o avanço das geleiras carboníferas esculpiu diferentes feições sobre o embasamento do Grupo Itararé, sendo interpretadas como produto de diferentes cenários de glaciação. No Paraná, geleiras não confinadas e de base plana avançaram predominantemente sobre arenitos devonianos da Formação Furnas. Em Santa Catarina, o avanço de geleiras sobre terrenos ígneos e metamórficos resultou em uma discordância de topografia muito irregular que sugere a presença de corredores de gelo. No Rio Grande do Sul, uma série de paleovales glaciais são interpretados como o produto da ação glacial sobre o escudo riograndense. Entretanto, há controvérsia sobre o controle tectônico versus glacial na geração destes paleovales. O estudo detalhado da ação glacial vem refinando o entendimento sobre a complexa glaciação que ocorreu no sul do Brasil durante o Carbonífero. 

ABSTRACT The currently favored hypothesis for Late Paleozoic Ice Age glaciations is that multiple ice centers were distributed across Gondwana and that these ice centers grew and shank asynchronously. Recent work has suggested that the Transantarctic Basin has glaciogenic deposits and erosional features from two different ice centers, one centered on the Antarctic Craton and another located over Marie Byrd Land. To work towards an understanding of LPIA glaciation that can be tied to global trends, these successions must be understood on a local level before they can be correlated to basinal, regional, or global patterns. This study evaluates the sedimentology, stratigraphy, and flow directions of the glaciogenic, Asselian–Sakmarian (Early Permian) Pagoda Formation from four localities in the Shackleton Glacier region of the Transantarctic Basin to characterize Late Paleozoic Ice Age glaciation in a South Polar, basin-marginal setting. These analyses show that the massive, sandy, clast-poor diamictites of the Pagoda Fm were deposited in a basin-marginal subaqueous setting through a variety of glaciogenic and glacially influenced mechanisms in a depositional environment with depths below normal wave base. Current-transported sands and stratified diamictites that occur at the top of the Pagoda Fm were deposited as part of grounding-line fan systems. Up to at least 100 m of topographic relief on the erosional surface underlying the Pagoda Fm strongly influenced the thickness and transport directions in the Pagoda Fm. Uniform subglacial striae orientations across 100 m of paleotopographic relief suggest that the glacier was significantly thick to “overtop” the paleotopography in the Shackleton Glacier region. This pattern suggests that the glacier was likely not alpine, but rather an ice cap or ice sheet. The greater part of the Pagoda Fm in the Shackleton Glacier region was deposited during a single retreat phase. This retreat phase is represented by a single glacial depositional sequence that is characteristic of a glacier with a temperate or mild subpolar thermal regime and significant meltwater discharge. The position of the glacier margin likely experienced minor fluctuations (readvances) during this retreat. Though the sediment in the Shackleton Glacier region was deposited during a single glacier retreat phase, evidence from this study does not preclude earlier or later glacier advance–retreat cycles preserved elsewhere in the basin. Ice flow directions indicate that the glacier responsible for this sedimentation was likely flowing off of an upland on the side of the Transantarctic Basin closer to the Panthalassan–Gondwanide margin (Marie Byrd Land), which supports the hypothesis that two different ice centers contributed glaciogenic sediments to the Transantarctic Basin. Together, these observations and interpretations provide a detailed local description of Asselian–Sakmarian glaciation in a South Polar setting that can be used to understand larger-scale patterns of regional and global climate change during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. 

A Era Glacial Neopaleozoica (LPIA – Late Paleozoic Ice Age) é representada na Bacia do Paraná pelo Grupo Itararé, cujos estratos fornecem um registro glacial dominado por sucessões glácio-marinhas e raros intervalos deformados por geleiras. Depósitos glaciotectonizados possuem macroestruturas como dobras, falhas e zonas de cisalhamento geradas sob ou na margem da geleira, formados quando a margem glacial avança sobre os sedimentos. Poucos estudos existem em estruturas microscópicas glaciotectônicas em estratos pré-Cenozoicos. Este estudo tem como objetivo utilizar as microestruturas como ferramenta auxiliar na interpretação de depósitos sedimentares deformados em contexto glacial. Os resultados são utilizados para avaliar criticamente a aplicabilidade da micromorfologia no registro glacial pré-pleistocênico e como essas estruturas podem ser modificadas ao longo do tempo em resposta à litificação e à diagênese. O estudo combina dados de campo com a análise micromorfológica e microestrutural detalhada de 18 lâminas petrográficas de rochas coletadas na porção basal do Grupo Itararé no município de Balsa Nova. As amostras laminadas foram coletadas em litotipos diferentes, incluindo diamictitos, arenitos e lamitos, deformados por glaciotectonismo. As microestruturas encontradas incluem uniastrial e skelsepic plasmic fabrics, foliações tipo SC, plasma bandado, estruturas rotacionais, grain turbates,alinhamento de grãos, microzonas e microplanos de cisalhamento, clastos cisalhados, falhas, dobras, ‘boudins’, estruturas de escape de fluidos e intraclastos. Em fácies bem selecionadas, com pouca ou nenhuma matriz, ocorrem também estruturas tipicamente relacionadas à compactação e diagênese, como grãos fraturados, redução da porosidade primária, contatos suturados e estilolitos. Os resultados mostram grande variedade de assembleias possíveis para as microestruturas, não necessariamente relacionáveis com a posição dos sedimentos em relação ao gelo no momento da deformação. Além disso, a porcentagem de matriz na amostra desempenha papel fundamental na preservação de estruturas primárias e feições de deformação em sedimentos. Fácies com pouca matriz sofrem grandes mudanças texturais devido à diagênese, que podem se sobrepor ou obliterar completamente as microestruturas glaciais.