The Origin of the Labyrinth, Wright Valley, Antarctica
The Labyrinth is an area of 30 km 2 of steep-sided troughs, some with no outlets, cut into a sill of the Ferrar Dolerite Formation. Hypotheses for its origin include fluvial erosion by meltwater in an interglacial stage, a volcanically induced flood, or jokulhlaup, glacial erosion and sub-glacial erosion. These hypotheses are rejected as having no field evidence in their favor and as catastrophist. It is. suggested that selective salt weathering working along major joints and in areas of close-jointing is an hypothesis supported by the field evidence that it is essentially uniformitarian.