Greater Antarctica was in tropical latitudes and part of east Gondwana during the Cambrian. A recent hypothesis postulates: (i) that the North American and combined Australian/East Antarctic cratons were juxtaposed in the Late Proterozoic, and (ii) that their Pacific-facing margins were initiated as a conjugate rift pair during latest Proterozoic-Early Cambrian interval. This award supports a test of this hypothesis because its acceptance has profound implications of shared geologic history. This work will compare in detail Cambrian events and faunas, concentrating in regions where the two continental masses are inferred to have been closes: south-western United States and the Queen Maud-Pensacola mountains segment of Antarctica.
