The stratigraphy and facies of the Late Precambrian lower glacial sequence, Mount Painter, South Australia

Abstract

The sediments described in this thesis represent a total of some 4,400 metres thickness which display evidence of varying degrees of glacial activity. They are of the Yudnamutana Sub-Group and the basal member of the Farina Sub-Group. They record the onset and subsequent retreat of the Sturtian glacial period, one of two glacial periods to affect Australia during the Late Precambrian. The geological formations have been subdivided into various sedimentological facies, most of which are probably not sufficiently continuous to be mappable units over very great distances, but which are critical to the correct interpretation of the climatic and sedimentological history of the region.