Conglomerate Ridge

Conglomerate Ridge (-79.75°N, -84.1°W) is a ridge, 1 nmi long, located 4 nmi east-southeast of Mount Bursik in the Soholt Peaks, Heritage Range, Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. The ridge trends northwest–southeast and rises to about 1,650 m. It was so named from the conglomerate composition of the ridge by Gerald F. Webers, leader of the United States Antarctic Research Program Ellsworth Mountains Expedition, 1979–80.

Geology
Detailed geologic maps of the Heritage Range shows that Conglomerate Ridge consists of steeply inclined, 55 to 62 degrees, Cambrian, metasedimentary strata. In terms of increasing age, the Cambrian strata includes the Frazier Ridge, Conglomerate Ridge, Drake Icefall, and Union Glacier formations. The Frazier Ridge Formation consists mainly of fine- to medium-grained green quartzite that contains infrequent beds of green argillite and black shale. It is estimated to be at least 500 m thick. It is underlain by the 600 m of Conglomerate Ridge Formation, which is named for Conglomerate Ridge. It consists of 450 m of buff, polymict, clast-supported conglomerate with beds of fine- to coarse-grained quartzite and overlying 150 m of sheared gray, green, and buff argillaceous quartzite. Underlying the Conglomerate Ridge Formation is 500 to 800 m of intensively sheared and folded black shale and interlayered limestone of the Drake Icefall Formation. It overlies an unknown thickness of the Union Glacier Formation. The Union Glacier Formation consists of over 3,000 m of dark green tuffaceous diamictite, which contains minor layers of tuffaceous rocks, metamorphosed buff calcareous sandstone, and buff calcareous conglomerate. Trilobite fossils from the Drake Icefall and other formations within the Heritage Group indicate that all of these units accumulated during the Middle Cambrian.