The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana
A determination of the seismic structure of the crust and uppermost mantle of East Antarctica, in the region of Casey station, Wilkes Land and Dumont D'Urville station, Terre Adelie is presented. High-fidelity waveforms from teleseismic earthquakes recorded at stations CASY and DRV (1996-2001)...
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ftanucanberra:oai:digitalcollections.anu.edu.au:1885/81601 2023-05-15T13:56:14+02:00 The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana Reading, Anya 2015-12-13T22:52:30Z http://hdl.handle.net/1885/81601 unknown Elsevier 1342-937X http://hdl.handle.net/1885/81601 Gondwana Research Keywords: Gondwana lithospheric structure Moho seismic tomography seismicity Adelie Coast Antarctica Australasia Australia East Antarctica Wilkes Land Australia Gondwana Receiver function Seismic structure Journal article 2015 ftanucanberra 2015-12-21T23:53:18Z A determination of the seismic structure of the crust and uppermost mantle of East Antarctica, in the region of Casey station, Wilkes Land and Dumont D'Urville station, Terre Adelie is presented. High-fidelity waveforms from teleseismic earthquakes recorded at stations CASY and DRV (1996-2001) are used to calculate the seismic receiver function, the signal produced as energy passes through layers in the seismic velocity structure under the receiving station. The receiver functions are stacked to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and then modelled using an inverse algorithm to find the structure that best fits the observed waveform at each station. Inferences are made regarding the tectonic structure, in particular, the crustal thickness and character of the seismic Moho. The crustal thickness under Casey Station is found to be 30 km (+/- 2 km) with a fairly sharp Moho, considerably less than Dumont D'Urville Station, where the crustal thickness is 42 km, and there is a significant low velocity region in the deep crust. The structure of the Wilkes Land lithosphere is comparable to that of the Albany-Fraser Orogen, Western Australia, part of its conjugate margin. This places a new constraint on the relative position of East Antarctica and Australia in the reconstruction of Gondwana, and earlier, supercontinents. A recent reinterpretation of Antarctic geology proposes tectonic province boundaries trending perpendicular to the coast with counterparts in southern Australia. Seismic techniques, determining structure beneath regions with no surface exposure, are vital tools in testing such tectonic hypotheses, towards the reconstruction of Gondwana to full lithospheric depth. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Wilkes Land Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections Antarctic Casey Station ENVELOPE(110.528,110.528,-66.282,-66.282) Casy ENVELOPE(-57.505,-57.505,-63.236,-63.236) Dumont d'Urville ENVELOPE(140.017,140.017,-66.667,-66.667) Dumont d'Urville Station ENVELOPE(140.000,140.000,-66.667,-66.667) Dumont-d'Urville ENVELOPE(140.013,140.013,-66.667,-66.667) East Antarctica Wilkes Land ENVELOPE(120.000,120.000,-69.000,-69.000) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections |
op_collection_id |
ftanucanberra |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Keywords: Gondwana lithospheric structure Moho seismic tomography seismicity Adelie Coast Antarctica Australasia Australia East Antarctica Wilkes Land Australia Gondwana Receiver function Seismic structure |
spellingShingle |
Keywords: Gondwana lithospheric structure Moho seismic tomography seismicity Adelie Coast Antarctica Australasia Australia East Antarctica Wilkes Land Australia Gondwana Receiver function Seismic structure Reading, Anya The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
topic_facet |
Keywords: Gondwana lithospheric structure Moho seismic tomography seismicity Adelie Coast Antarctica Australasia Australia East Antarctica Wilkes Land Australia Gondwana Receiver function Seismic structure |
description |
A determination of the seismic structure of the crust and uppermost mantle of East Antarctica, in the region of Casey station, Wilkes Land and Dumont D'Urville station, Terre Adelie is presented. High-fidelity waveforms from teleseismic earthquakes recorded at stations CASY and DRV (1996-2001) are used to calculate the seismic receiver function, the signal produced as energy passes through layers in the seismic velocity structure under the receiving station. The receiver functions are stacked to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and then modelled using an inverse algorithm to find the structure that best fits the observed waveform at each station. Inferences are made regarding the tectonic structure, in particular, the crustal thickness and character of the seismic Moho. The crustal thickness under Casey Station is found to be 30 km (+/- 2 km) with a fairly sharp Moho, considerably less than Dumont D'Urville Station, where the crustal thickness is 42 km, and there is a significant low velocity region in the deep crust. The structure of the Wilkes Land lithosphere is comparable to that of the Albany-Fraser Orogen, Western Australia, part of its conjugate margin. This places a new constraint on the relative position of East Antarctica and Australia in the reconstruction of Gondwana, and earlier, supercontinents. A recent reinterpretation of Antarctic geology proposes tectonic province boundaries trending perpendicular to the coast with counterparts in southern Australia. Seismic techniques, determining structure beneath regions with no surface exposure, are vital tools in testing such tectonic hypotheses, towards the reconstruction of Gondwana to full lithospheric depth. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Reading, Anya |
author_facet |
Reading, Anya |
author_sort |
Reading, Anya |
title |
The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
title_short |
The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
title_full |
The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
title_fullStr |
The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
title_full_unstemmed |
The seismic structure of Wilkes Land/Terre Adelie, East Antarctica and comparison with Australia: First steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of Gondwana |
title_sort |
seismic structure of wilkes land/terre adelie, east antarctica and comparison with australia: first steps in reconstructing the deep lithosphere of gondwana |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1885/81601 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(110.528,110.528,-66.282,-66.282) ENVELOPE(-57.505,-57.505,-63.236,-63.236) ENVELOPE(140.017,140.017,-66.667,-66.667) ENVELOPE(140.000,140.000,-66.667,-66.667) ENVELOPE(140.013,140.013,-66.667,-66.667) ENVELOPE(120.000,120.000,-69.000,-69.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic Casey Station Casy Dumont d'Urville Dumont d'Urville Station Dumont-d'Urville East Antarctica Wilkes Land |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Casey Station Casy Dumont d'Urville Dumont d'Urville Station Dumont-d'Urville East Antarctica Wilkes Land |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Wilkes Land |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Wilkes Land |
op_source |
Gondwana Research |
op_relation |
1342-937X http://hdl.handle.net/1885/81601 |
_version_ |
1766263597979140096 |