A new stratigraphic model is presented for the evolution of the Cenozoic Victoria Land Basin of the West
Antarctic Rift, based on integration of seismic reflection and drilling data. The Early Rift phase (?latest Eocene to Early
Oligocene) comprises wedges of strata confined by early extensional faults, and which contain seismic facies consistent
with drainage via coarse-grained fans and deltas into discrete, actively subsiding grabens and half-grabens. The Main
Rift phase (Early Oligocene to Early Miocene) comprises a lens of strata that thickens symmetrically from the basin
margins into a central depocenter, and in which stratal events pass continuously over the top of the Early Rift
extensional topography. Internal seismic facies and lithofacies indicate a more organized, cyclical shallow marine
succession, influenced increasingly upward by cycles of glacial advance and retreat into the basin. The Passive Thermal
Subsidence phase (Early Miocene to ?) comprises an evenly distributed sheet of strata that does not thicken appreciably
into the depocentre, with more evidence for clinoform sets and large channels. These patterns are interpreted to record
accumulation under similar environmental conditions but in a regime of slower subsidence. The Renewed Rifting phase
(? to Recent, largely unsampled by coring thus far) has been further divided into 1, a lower interval, in which the section
thickens passively towards a central depocentre, and 2. an upper interval, in which more dramatic thickening patterns
are complicated by magmatic activity. The youngest part of the stratigraphy was accumulated under the influence of
flexural loading imposed by the construction of large volcanic edifices, and involved minimal sediment supply from the
western basin margin, suggesting a change in environmental (glacial) conditions at possibly c. 2 Ma.
