Tottan Hills
P1P5
Overlooking the Johnsonhogna from southwest
The Tottanfjella is the southernmost part of the mountain Heimefrontfjella in New Swabia. It is separated from the more northerly parts of the Heimefrontfjella through the glacier -filled Kiberdalen. The mountain ranges and nunataks of Tottanfjella cover an area of about 1200 km ²; the highest point is 2220 m high Johnsonhogna. The Tottanfjella was named after the Norwegian expedition ship MV Tottan, which was used in Antarctic expeditions in the 1950s, including the construction of the British Halley station. The mountain range was from 1963 to 1966 by British expeditions visited and measured for the first time, a detailed geological mapping was carried out in the austral summer 1993/94 by the German - South African Heimefrontfjella expedition.
Geology
See also Geology of Heimefrontfjella
The western part of Tottanfjella consists of granulite gneisses and quartzites, which are mya old about 1200 and were metamorphosed in the late Mesoproterozoikum. These rocks are separated by a mostly hidden by the ice fault zone of granite and monzonite, which were several times, most recently in Cambrian, deformed and metamorphic overprints. Clearly visible is the crustal boundary between the two sub- areas on aeromagnetic images.
Fauna and Flora
Because of the large distance to the open sea, only breed relatively few pairs of snow petrel ( Pagodroma nivea ) in this mountain region. Two mite species have their type locality in the Tottanfjella, which was a kind of tottanfjella named after this mountain as Eupodes; the second type Norchestes bifurcatus was first found in this mountain range. Plant life is rare in the Tottanfjella and limited to a few locations. There are particular crustose lichens of the genera Lecidea and Alectoria.