The East Antarctic Craton contains only one substantial outcrop of Palaeozoic–Mesozoic strata between 0° and 150°E; this lies in Mac. Robertson Land, on the eastern margin of the northern Prince Charles Mountains. These rocks are known as the Amery Group (Mond 1972, McKelvey & Stephenson 1990) and comprise dominantly fluviatile sandstones, with subordinate shales, coals and conglomerates. The lower formations of the Amery Group, the Radok Conglomerate and Bainmedart Coal Measures, contain a diverse Stage 5 palynomorph assemblage indicating a Baigendzhinian–Tatarian age (late Early–Late Permian, hereafter abbreviated as mid–Late Permian; Dibner 1978).

The Bunger Hills area of the East Antarctic Shield consists of granulite-facies felsic orthogneiss, with subordinate paragneiss and mafic granulite. The igneous precursors of granodioritic orthogneiss were emplaced 1500-1700 Ma ago, and late Archaean (2640 Ma) tonalitic orthogneiss occurs in the nearby Obruchev Hills. Peak metamorphism (M1) (at about 750-800°C and 5-6kb) occurred 1190 ±15 Ma ago (U-Pb zircon age), and was accompanied by the first of three ductile deformations (D1). Emplacement of voluminous, mainly mantle-derived plutonic rocks, ranging from gabbro, through quartz monzogabbro and quartz monzodiorite, to granite, followed between 1170 (during D3) and 1150 Ma. Intrusion of abundant dolerite dykes of four chemically distinct suites at about 1140 Ma was associated with shear zone formation, indicating at least limited uplift; all subsequent deformation was of brittle-ductile type. Alkaline mafic dykes were emplaced 500 Ma ago. Marked geochronological similarities with the Albany Mobile Belt of Western Australia suggest that high-grade metamorphism occurred during collision between the Archaean Yilgarn Craton of Australia and the East Antarctic Shield about 1200 Ma ago.

The depositional environment of the Devonian Taylor Group has been subject to considerable debate for over 30 years. The debate stems largely from a belief that the abundant and diverse trace fossils represent a marine ichnofauna, whereas sedimentary features, including palaeosols, desiccation polygons and red beds, are more typical of a non-marine setting. The debate is reconciled by a reinterpretation of the trace fossil assemblage which shows that the trace fossils comprise a typical fresh water (Scoyenia ichnofacies) assemblage, and their occurrence in the Taylor Group in the Darwin Glacier area is entirely consistent with deposition in a mixed fluvial-lacustrine-subaerial environment.

The first extended baseline studies of total gaseous mercury (TGM) and dimethylmercury (DMM) in Antarctica are reported. Mean TGM concentrations of 0.52, 0.60 and 0.52 ng m−3 were obtained for three consecutive years at the southern tip of Ross Island (77°S). The levels of DMM in Antarctica are less than 10% of the TGM, and frequently fall below the limit of detection. These results represent the lowest TGM concentrations recorded globally and extend into polar regions the observation of a decrease in atmospheric mercury concentration with increasing latitude.

Geologists from many countries have worked in Antarctica since the turn of the twentieth century and during the past thirty years the level of research activity on the continent has increased annually. As a result there has been a proliferation of stratigraphical names and lithostratigraphical schemes (Thomson, 1990). Furthermore, geologists from different nations are familiar with different standards and codes of nomenclature, which has resulted in a number of inconsistencies in Antarctic stratigraphical names. The SCAR Working Groups on Geology and Solid Earth Geophysics therefore recommended at their meeting in 1990 with SCAR XXII in São Paulo that, for sedimentary rocks, geologists working in Antarctica should adhere to the stratigraphical principles and recommendations proposed by Hedberg (1976). It was recognized, however, that igneous and metamorphic rocks present special problems of nomenclature. An ad hoc group of the SCAR Working Group on Geology for naming igneous and metamorphic rock units, constituted by the authors of this note, was therefore established to consider and discuss these problems and to formulate recommendations for suitable schemes that may be used internationally for Antarctica.

Satellite infra-red imagery and meteorological data suggest the presence of winter open water (polynya) in the coastal pack ice to the north and west of the Brunt Ice Shelf. Satellite imagery, although only available for a limited number of occasions, provides evidence for the polynya during the austral winter of 1991. Indirect meteorological observations from the British Antarctic Survey's Halley station (75° 36′S, 26° 42′W) provide very strong supporting evidence of open water to the west of the ice shelf in previous years.

Because of its remoteness, Marie Byrd Land is among the most inaccessible and least visited parts of Antarctica. However, it contains a very poorly studied, large Cenozoic alkaline volcanic province and an outstanding record of volcanism coeval with glaciation (LeMasurier & Thomson 1990). This short note describes the results of the second of two planned periods of fieldwork, which form part of the West Antarctic Volcano Exploration (WAVE) project. The background to WAVE and preliminary results of the 1989–1990 fieldwork are described in Smellie et al. (1990) and McIntosh et al. (1990). The studies described here took place between 2 November 1990 and 11 January 1991.

The paper discusses ELF-VLF investigations of the low Antarctic ionosphere. Two new methods of lower ionospheric diagnostics are based on an investigation of the VLF electromagnetic field structure in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. One method deals with the analysis of local transverse cavity resonances in the near field of an emitter (a horizontal antenna) with a frequency (~1.5-8 kHz) in the range of the first few resonances. The other method, based on tweek investigations, is applicable under night conditions and enables the characteristics of the low ionosphere to be determined over a signal propagation path. The use of the ELF-VLF transmitter at Siple Station provides a unique opportunity to implement these methods, as does the ELF multipoint recording in the Schumann resonance band of atmospherics excited by powerful lightning discharges.