Abstract The Antarctic continent, which contains enough ice to raise sea level globally by around 60 m, is the last major scientific frontier on our planet. We know far more about the surfaces of the Moon, Mars and around half of Pluto than we do about the underside of the Antarctic ice sheet. Geophysical exploration is the key route to measuring the ice sheetâs internal structure and the land on which the ice rests. From such measurements, we are able to reveal how the ice sheet flows, and how it responds to atmospheric and ocean warming. By examining landscapes that have been moulded by former ice flow, we are able to identify how the ice sheet behaved in the past. Geophysics is therefore critical to understanding change in Antarctica.

Paralic reservoirs reflect a range of depositional environments including deltas, shoreline-shelf systems and estuaries. They provide the backbone of production in many mature basins, and contribute significantly to global conventional hydrocarbon production. However, the range of environments, together with relative sea-level and sediment supply changes, result in significant variability in their stratigraphic architecture and sedimentological heterogeneity, which translates into complex patterns of reservoir distribution and production that are challenging to predict, optimize and manage. This volume presents new research and developments in established approaches to the exploration and production of paralic reservoirs. The 13 papers in the volume are grouped into three thematic sections, which address: the sedimentological characterization of paralic reservoirs using subsurface data; lithological heterogeneity in paralic depositional systems arising from the influence of tidal currents; and paralic reservoir analogue studies of modern sediments and ancient outcrops. The volume demonstrates that heterogeneity in paralic reservoirs is increasingly well understood at all scales, but highlights gaps in our knowledge and areas of current research.

Abstract Earth’s near-surface mineralogy has diversified over more than 4.5 b.y. from no more than a dozen preplanetary refractory mineral species (what have been referred to as “ur-minerals” by Hazen et al., 2008) to ~5,000 species (based on the list of minerals approved by the International Mineralogical Association; http://rruff.info/ima). This dramatic diversification is a consequence of three principal physical, chemical, and biological processes: (1) element selection and concentration (primarily through planetary differentiation and fluidrock interactions); (2) an expanded range of mineral-forming environments (including temperature, pressure, redox, and activities of volatile species); and (3) the influence of the biosphere. Earth’s history can be divided into three eras and ten stages of “mineral evolution” (Table 1; Hazen et al., 2008), each of which has seen significant changes in the planet’s near-surface mineralogy, including increases in the number of mineral species; shifts in the distribution of those species; systematic changes in major, minor, and trace element and isotopic compositions of minerals; and the appearance of new mineral grain sizes, textures, and/or morphologies. Initial treatments of mineral evolution, first in Russia (e.g., Zhabin, 1979; Yushkin, 1982) and subsequently in greater detail by our group (Hazen et al., 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013a, b; Hazen and Ferry, 2010; Hazen, 2013), focused on key events in Earth history. The 10 stages we suggested are Earth’s accretion and differentiation (stages 1, 2, and 3), petrologic innovations (e.g., the stage 4 initiation of granite magmatism), modes of tectonism (stage 5 and the commencement of plate tectonics), biological transitions (origins of life, oxygenic photosynthesis, and the terrestrial biosphere in stages 6, 7, and 10, respectively), and associated environmental changes in oceans and atmosphere (stage 8 “intermediate ocean” and stage 9 “snowball/hothouse Earth” episodes). These 10 stages of mineral evolution provide a useful conceptual framework for considering Earth’s changing mineralogy through time, and episodes of metallization are often associated with specific stages of mineral evolution (Table 1). For example, the formation of complex pegmatites with Be, Li, Cs, and Sn mineralization could not have occurred prior to stage 4 granitization. Similarly, the appearance of large-scale volcanogenic sulfide deposits may postdate the initiation of modern-style subduction (stage 5). The origins and evolution of life also played central roles; for example, redox-mediated ore deposits of elements such as U, Mo, and Cu occurred only after the Great Oxidation Event (stage 7), and major Hg deposition is associated with the rise of the terrestrial biosphere (stage 10; Hazen et al., 2012).

Abstract The Antarctic rock record spans some 3.5 billion years of history, and has made important contributions to our understanding of how Earth's continents assemble and disperse through time. Correlations between Antarctica and other southern continents were critical to the concept of Gondwana, the Palaeozoic supercontinent used to support early arguments for continental drift, while evidence for Proterozoic connections between Antarctica and North America led to the ‘SWEAT’ configuration (linking SW USA to East Antarctica) for an early Neoproterozoic supercontinent known as Rodinia. Antarctica also contains relicts of an older Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic supercontinent known as Nuna, along with several Archaean fragments that belonged to one or more ‘supercratons’ in Neoarchaean times. It thus seems likely that Antarctica contains remnants of most, if not all, of Earth's supercontinents, and Antarctic research continues to provide insights into their palaeogeography and geological evolution. One area of research is the latest Neoproterozoic–Mesozoic active margin of Gondwana, preserved in Antarctica as the Ross Orogen and a number of outboard terranes that now form West Antarctica. Major episodes of magmatism, deformation and metamorphism along this palaeo-Pacific margin at 590–500 and 300–230 Ma can be linked to reduced convergence along the internal collisional orogens that formed Gondwana and Pangaea, respectively; indicating that accretionary systems are sensitive to changes in the global plate tectonic budget. Other research has focused on Grenville-age ( c. 1.0 Ga) and Pan-African ( c. 0.5 Ga) metamorphism in the East Antarctic Craton. These global-scale events record the amalgamation of Rodinia and Gondwana, respectively. Three coastal segments of Grenville-age metamorphism in the Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica are each linked to the c. 1.0 Ga collision between older cratons but are separated by two regions of pervasive Pan-African metamorphism ascribed to Neoproterozoic ocean closure. The tectonic setting of these events is poorly constrained given the sparse exposure, deep erosion level and likelihood that younger metamorphic events have reactivated older structures. The projection of these orogens under the ice is also controversial, but it is likely that at least one of the Pan-African orogens links up with the Shackleton Range on the palaeo-Pacific margin of the craton. Sedimentary detritus and glacial erratics at the edge of the ice sheet provide evidence for the c. 1.0 and 0.5 Ga orogenesis in the continental interior, while geophysical data reveal prominent geological boundaries under the ice, but there are insufficient data to trace these features to exposed structures of known age. Until we can resolve the subglacial geometry and tectonic setting of the c. 0.5 and 1.0 Ga metamorphism, there will be no consensus on the configuration of Rodinia, or the size and shape of the continents that existed immediately before and after this supercontinent. Given this uncertainty, it is premature to speculate on the role of Antarctica in earlier supercontinents, but it is likely that Antarctica will continue to provide important constraints when our attention shifts to these earlier events.