Painted Peak, also called Painted Hill, () is a prominent

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

, , on the northern end of the

North Masson Range North Masson Range is part of the Masson Range, which is divided into three parts of which this segment is the northern, rising to 1,030 m and extending 3 nautical miles (6 km) in a north–south direction. The Masson Range was discovered and n ...

in the

Framnes Mountains The Framnes Mountains are an Antarctic mountain range consisting of Casey Range, Masson Range, David Range, and Brown Range, and adjacent peaks and mountains. The three major ranges and other lesser features were sighted and named in February 193 ...

Mac. Robertson Land Mac. Robertson Land is the portion of Antarctica lying southward of the coast between William Scoresby Bay and Cape Darnley. It is located at . In the east, Mac. Robertson Land includes the Prince Charles Mountains. It was named by the British Au ...

. It was aerially photographed in 1936-1937 and later mapped from these photos by Norwegian cartographers in 1946. It was first visited by an

ANARE The Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE ) is the historical name for the Australia: Antarctic Program#Australian Antarctic program, Australian Antarctic Program (AAp) administered for Australia by the Australian Antarctic D ...

team in 1955. The ANCA named it for its prominent red-brown coloring. USACAN accepted the name in 1965.Stewart, J., 2011. ''Antarctica: An Encyclopedia,'' 2nd ed. Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland & Company, Inc. 1771 pp. Alberts, F.G. ed., 1995.
Geographic names of the Antarctic
'. NFS 95-157. Alexandria, Virginia, United States Board on Geographic Names and National Science Foundation. 834 pp. It was used as a

tellurometer The tellurometer was the first successful microwave electronic distance measurement equipment. The name derives from the Latin ''tellus'', meaning Earth. History The original tellurometer, known as the Micro-Distancer MRA 1, was introduced in 19 ...

station in 1962.

Geology

Painted Peak is the type locality for "Painted Gneiss". At this location the gneiss is about thick, but this thickness may be partly due to folding.Trail, D.S., 1970
''Series A (III) Geology, ANARE Interim Reports''. ''Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions Publication''
No. 116, pp.37, 1:250,000 scale maps. The Painted Gneiss is a sequence of

garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...

- and

biotite Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more alumino ...

-bearing

felsic In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz.Marshak, Stephen, 2009, ''Essentials of Geology,'' W. W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, whi ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

, interlayered with calc-silicates,

migmatitic Migmatite is a composite rock (geology), rock found in medium and high-grade metamorphic environments, commonly within Precambrian craton, cratonic blocks. It consists of two or more constituents often layered repetitively: one layer is an old ...

garnet+

sillimanite Sillimanite is an aluminosilicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864). It was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Chester, Connecticut. Occurrence S ...

cordierite Cordierite (mineralogy) or iolite (gemology) is a magnesium iron aluminium cyclosilicate. Iron is almost always present and a solid solution exists between Mg-rich cordierite and Fe-rich sekaninaite with a series formula: to . A high-temperatu ...

-bearing metapelites and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

gneiss. At Painted Mountain, the Painted Gneiss occurs as an isolated

roof pendant In structural geology, a roof pendant, also known as a pendant, is a mass of country rock that projects downward into and is entirely surrounded by an igneous intrusion such as a batholith or other pluton. In lay terminology sometimes "rock h ...

s within the late

Proterozoic The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided ...

Mawson Charnockite. The Mawson Charnockite is an extensive batholith of plutonic igneous rock that has intruded the

metasedimentary In geology, metasedimentary rock is a type of metamorphic rock. Such a rock was first formed through the deposition and solidification of sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and er ...

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

that comprises the Painted Gneiss. The latter occurs as isolated

xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...

s and roof pendants, of which Painted Mountain is the largest, within the

charnockite Charnockite () is any orthopyroxene-bearing quartz-feldspar rock formed at high temperature and pressure, commonly found in granulite facies metamorphic regions, ''sensu stricto'' as an endmember of the charnockite series. Charnockite series The ...

. The Mawson Charnockite was syntectonically metamorphosed into orthogneiss. It outcrops throughout the Framnes Mountains and as far west as Chapman Ridge.Clarke, G.L., 1988. ''Structural constraints on the Proterozoic reworking of Archaean crust in the Rayner Complex, MacRobertson and Kemp Land coast, East Antarctica.'' ''Precambrian Research'', 40, pp.137-156.Clarke, G.L., Powell, R. and Guiraud, M., 1989. ''Low‐pressure granulite facies metapelitic assemblages and corona textures from MacRobertson Land, east Antarctica: the importance of Fe2O3 and TiO2 in accounting for spinel-bearing assemblages''. ''Journal of Metamorphic Geology'', 7(3), pp.323-335.

Biology

Lichens found on Painted Peak include: Filson, R.B., 1966
''The lichens and mosses of MacRobertson Land''
''ANARE Scientific Reports Series B'' 82, pp. 169. *'' Acarospora gwynnii'' *'' Acarospora wiliamsii'' *''

Biatorella antarctica ''Biatorella'' is a genus of fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are cla ...

'' *'' Buellia frigida '' *''

Buellia ''Buellia'' is a genus of mostly lichen-forming fungi in the family Caliciaceae. The fungi are usually part of a crustose lichen. In this case, the lichen species is given the same name as the fungus. But members may also grow as parasites on li ...

aff. subpedicellata'' *'' Protoblasienia citrina '' *'' Lecanora rubina var. melanophthalma f. exulans'' *'' Lecanora expectans'' *'' Lecidea phillipsiana '' *''

Rhizocarpon flavum ''Rhizocarpon'' is a genus of crustose, saxicolous (or sometimes lichenicolous), lichens in the family Rhizocarpaceae. The genus is common in arctic-alpine environments, but also occurs throughout temperate, subtropical, and even tropical region ...

'' *'' Omphalodiscus decussatus '' *'' Alectoria minuscules''

References

{{reflist Mountains of Mac. Robertson Land