Two continents once joined?

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 15

Two continents once joined?

The riddle of where Australia and the Antarctic were joined millions of years ago was closer to solution yesterday when New Zealand scientists returned to Christchurch from Scott Base with data collected during a 60-day geological expedition in the Bowers Mountains area of Northern Victoria Land.

The scientists’ discoveries indicate that the area, 500 miles north of Scott Base, is closely linked geologically with Tasmania and the evidence is the most convincing yet to show the Bowers Mountains were once linked to southern Australia. For some years scientists have accepted that the two continents were once joined but there have been many differences on the precise points. Dr M. G. Laird, of the New 1

Zealand Geological Survey in Christchurch and leader of one of the two parties involved in the expedition, said previous rock comparisons indicated that the Bowers Mountains might have been linked with Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales or even Victoria. “As it turned out the rocks of the Bowers Mountains have many similiarities with i those of Tasmania and are

quite dissimilar to those elsewhere in Australia.” Dr Laird’s discoveries have been supported by fossil information collected in the same region by the second party led by Dr R. A. Cooper of the Geological Survey in Lower Hutt.

His party’s work was considerably assisted by Dr J. B. Jago, a lecturer in geology at the South Australian Institute of Technology, Adelaide, and an expert on Tasmania’s rocks and fossils from the Cambrian Age (500 m to 600 m years ago). “He knew the Tasmanian sequence well enough to tell us immediately if the fossil sequence in the Bowers Mountains were similar,” said Dr Cooper. Dr Jago will return to Aus-

tralia next week but his involvement with the expedition’s work will continue. In Adelaide he will begin to study the large collection of fossils brought from the Antarctic by the party. Dr Cooper said the party had collected enough fossils to keep three men busy for three years and that he and Dr Jago would share the task to save time.

The two field parties worked independently in the Bowers Mountains and met only once to compare notes and to meet a supply flight. Collectively they travelled more than 1000 miles and their work involved numerous climbs to rocky outcrops free of ice and snow to collect material.