Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Antarctic Research Series, Volume 48. This volume attempts to present both a comprehensive overview of the south polar and subpolar volcanic provinces, and summary data on the status of knowledge of each volcano or volcano group. This broad region, covering roughly 6% of the Earth's surface, is infrequently visited and yet truly international. Its geoscience literature is dispersed in many journals, monographs, symposium volumes, and expedition reports, in many nations, and we hope that this summary will make it more widely available. The preparation of the volume has been a project of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) through its Working Group on Antarctic Volcanology. It represents a substantial update and expansion of IAVCEI's 1960 Catalogue of Active Volcanoes for Antarctica (edited by W.H. Berninghausen and M. Neumann van Padang). The organization and format of the volume, conventions followed, and other items of information are presented below.

This memoir is the first to review all of Antarctica’s volcanism between 200 million years ago and the Present. The region is still volcanically active. The volume is an amalgamation of in-depth syntheses, which are presented within distinctly different tectonic settings. Each is described in terms of (1) the volcanology and eruptive palaeoenvironments; (2) petrology and origin of magma; and (3) active volcanism, including tephrochronology. Important volcanic episodes include: astonishingly voluminous mafic and felsic volcanic deposits associated with the Jurassic break-up of Gondwana; the construction and progressive demise of a major Jurassic to Present continental arc, including back-arc alkaline basalts and volcanism in a young ensialic marginal basin; Miocene to Pleistocene mafic volcanism associated with post-subduction slab-window formation; numerous Neogene alkaline volcanoes, including the massive Erebus volcano and its persistent phonolitic lava lake, that are widely distributed within and adjacent to one of the world’s major zones of lithospheric extension (the West Antarctic Rift System); and very young ultrapotassic volcanism erupted subglacially and forming a world-wide type example (Gaussberg).

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The alkaline igneous rocks and carbonatites are compositionally and mineralogically the most diverse of all igneous rocks and, apart from their scientific interest, are of major, and growing, economic importance. They are important repositories of certain metals and commodities, indeed the only significant sources of some of them, and include Nb, the rare earths, Cu, V, diamond, phosphate, vermiculite, bauxite, raw materials for the manufacture of ceramics, and potentially Th and U. The economic potential of these rocks is now widely appreciated, particularly since the commencement of the mining of the Palabora carbonatite for copper and a host of valuable by-products. Similarly, the crucial economic dominance of rare earth production from carbonatite-related occurrences in China, has stimulated the world-wide hunt for similar deposits. This volume describes and provides ready access to the literature for all known occurrences of alkaline igneous rocks and carbonatites of Antarctica, Asia and Europe excluding the former USSR, Australasia and oceanic islands. More than 1,200 occurrences from 59 countries are outlined together with those of 57 oceanic islands and island groups. The descriptions include geographical coordinates and information on general geology, rock types, petrography, mineralogy, age and economic aspects with the principal references cited. There are 429 geological and distribution maps and a locality index. As has been demonstrated by the three earlier volumes, the present book is likely to be of considerable interest to mineral exploration companies, as there are no comprehensive published reviews of the economic aspects of the alkaline rocks. It will also interest research scientists in the fields of igneous petrology and volcanology, and geologists concerned with the regional distribution of igneous rocks and their geodynamic relationships.

This book presents a summary of the geology of the Transantarctic Mountains for Earth scientists who may want to work there or who need an overview of the geologic history of this region. In addition, the properties of the East Antarctic ice sheet and of the meteorites that accumulate on its surface are treated in separate chapters. The presentation ends with the Cenozoic glaciation of the Transantarctic Mountains including the limnology and geochemical evolution of the saline lakes in the ice-free valleys. • The subject matter in this book is presented in chronological order starting about 750 million years ago and continuing to the present time. • The chapters can be read selectively because the introduction to each chapter identifies the context that gives relevance to the subject matter to be discussed. • The text is richly illustrated with 330 original line drawings as well as with 182 color maps and photographs. • The book contains indexes of both subject matter and of authors’ names that allow it to be used as an encyclopedia of the Transantarctic Mountains and of the East Antarctic ice sheet. • Most of the chapters are supplemented by Appendices containing data tables, additional explanations of certain phenomena (e.g., the formation and seasonal destruction of stratospheric ozone), and illustrative calculations (e.g., 38Cl dates of meteorites). • The authors have spent a combined total of fourteen field seasons between 1964 and 1995 doing geological research in the Transantarctic Mountains with logistical support by the US Antarctic Program. • Although Antarctica is remote and inaccessible, tens of thousands of scientists of many nationalities and their assistants have worked there and even larger numbers of investigators will work there in the future.

This Memoir is the first dedicated to the Antarctic mantle. It is a cross-disciplinary reference work combining geochemistry and geophysics to characterize Antarctic mantle properties. Through observations and modelling the mantle structures, compositions and dynamics are characterized at regional and continental scales by subject experts. The Memoir reviews all known occurrences of sub-continental mantle xenoliths in igneous rocks. These studies are presented by region as southern or northern Victoria Land, Marie Byrd Land, the Antarctic Peninsula, East Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands. Sub-oceanic mantle in tectonically emplaced and abyssal settings is also considered where known. This is complemented by a continental-scale mantle xenolith overview, mantle characteristics from igneous rocks and a quantitative mantle fabric study. State-of-the-art, continental-scale geophysical overviews of the Antarctic mantle are presented by discipline as seismology, gravity and magnetics, magnetotellurics, rheology, glacial isostatic adjustment, mantle convection and palaeotopography. This Memoir will be the reference for all researchers interested in the Antarctic mantle and its role in dynamics that shape the Antarctic surface and ice sheets.

This volume focuses on magmas and cryospheres on Earth and Mars and is the first publication of its kind to combine a thematic set of contributions addressing the diverse range of volcano-ice interactions known or thought to occur on both planets. Understanding those interactions is a comparatively young scientific endeavour, yet it is vitally important for a fuller comprehension of how planets work as integrated systems. It is also topical since future volcanic eruptions on Earth may contribute to melting ice sheets and thus to global sea level rise.