At the turn of October 1985, the abundance of breeding Adelie penguins was estimated at the Hope Bay oasis on the Antarctic Peninsula and on Seymour Island. In the Hope Bay rookery, 123850 pairs of penguins were recorded, beginning their breeding at the end of October. Data so far obtained indicate a continuous increase in the number of birds sat this rookery. On the other hand, the Seymour Island colony consisted of 21954 pairs of Adélie penguins. Clear differences in the geomorphological structure of areas occupied by penguins in those two places are discussed. No gentoo penguins were detected in either of the colonies.

A sequence of glacial deposits up to 4 m thick unconformably overlies the Eocene La Meseta Formation on the Seymour Island plateau (meseta) and forms a lithostratigraphically distinct unit in the succession of the James Ross Basin, which is formally named here as the Weddell Sea Formation. The formation is thus far known only from Seymour Island. This is a terrestrial melt-out till which contains abundant erratics and also reworked Cretaceous–Tertiary micro- and macrofossils within a silty clay matrix. The terrestrial origin of this till is shown by glacial striations at the base of the unit. The largest erratics (up to 3 m in diameter) are composed of plutonic (granitoids) and metamorphic (gneiss and crystalline schist) rocks of the Antarctic Peninsula provenance. Smaller in size and much more numerous are erratics of volcanic rocks, represented by andesite, basalt and corresponding pyroclastics of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group. Less common are erratics of sedimentary rocks, sometimes bearing fossils derived from the underlying Tertiary and Cretaceous strata. A few erratics from the top of the studied sequence are conglomerates of the Cockburn Island Formation with a foraminifer fauna. These are the youngest clasts within the Weddell Sea Formation. The presence of the Pliocene index fossil Ammoelphidiella antarctica Conato et Segre, 1974 indicates a lower age limit of latest Pliocene or earliest Pleistocene age. The upper age limit of the formation has not been established. An encrusting, unilamellar, colony of the bryozoan Escharella Gray, 1848 has been found on the one of erratics from the Weddell Sea Formation. This is the first fossil record of this genus in Antarctica.

Eocene penguin remains from Seymour Island (Antarctica) are so far the oldest−known record of extinct Sphenisciformes. Rich Argentineand Polish collections of penguin bones from the La Meseta Formation are taxonomically revised on tarsometatarsal morphology. Two genera and four species are erected: Mesetaornis polarisgen. et sp. n., Marambiornis exilisgen. et sp. n., Delphinornis arctowskiisp. n. and D. gracilissp. n. Moreover, the diagnoses of already described species: Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, A. grandis, Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, P. gunnari, Archaeospheniscus wimani and Delphinornis larseniare revised as well. Gradual cooling of climate, changes of environment andtrophic relationships, that lasted several millions years, were most probably responsible forthe intense speciation and taxonomic diversification of the Middle–Late Eocene La Meseta penguins.

Mineral composition of bedrock is the main factor determining salt mineralization in the weathering zone of Seymour (Marambio) Island (maritime — Antarctic continent climatic boundary). Supply of salts by sea water spray can accelerate weathering process, modify chemical formula of salt minerals and give ephemeral efflorescences of easy soluble chlorides and partially longer lasting gypsum on the surface. Microbiologically mediated oxidation of sulphides and followed acid sulphate drainage formed K and Na jarosite, basic amorphous aluminium sulphate, gypsum, aluminium bearing ferrihydrite and ankerite in weathering zone of Paleogene sediments. Intense alteration of well-lithified, calcareous sandstones of unit 1 of the López de Bertodano Formation (Cretaceous) on old erosion surface led localy to surface mineralization comparable with that found in Antarctic Continent. Stones laying on the soil surface are covered by thin red film of ferrihydrite above the soil level and by light green crust of aragonite coloured by glauconite pigment on the underground side. Most of the Cretaceous sediment does not contain sulphides nor alteration susceptible silicates thus ephemeral sea salts efflorescences observed on its surface are more prominent than in another places.