Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins
The Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-collisional mountain range on Earth. Their origin, as well as the origin of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB) along the inland side of the TAMs, have been widely debated, and a key constraint to distinguish between competing models is the under...
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Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.15784/601194 http://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601194 |
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ftdatacite:10.15784/601194 2023-05-15T13:30:27+02:00 Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins Hansen, Samantha 2019 https://dx.doi.org/10.15784/601194 http://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601194 en eng U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us CC-BY-NC-SA Antarctica dataset Dataset 2019 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.15784/601194 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z The Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-collisional mountain range on Earth. Their origin, as well as the origin of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB) along the inland side of the TAMs, have been widely debated, and a key constraint to distinguish between competing models is the underlying crustal structure. Previous investigations have examined this structure but have primarily focused on a small region of the central TAMs near Ross Island, providing little along-strike constraint. In this study, we use data from the new Transantarctic Mountains Northern Network and from five stations operated by the Korea Polar Research Institute to investigate the crustal structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the TAMs. Using S-wave receiver functions and Rayleigh wave phase velocities, crustal thickness and average crustal shear velocity (Vs) are resolved within ±4 km and ±0.1 km/s, respectively. The crust thickens from ~20 km near the Ross Sea coast to ~46 km beneath the northern TAMs, which is somewhat thicker than that imaged in previous studies beneath the central TAMs. The crust thins to ~41 km beneath the WSB.Vs ranges from ~3.1-3.9 km/s, with slower velocities near the coast. Our findings are consistent with a flexural origin for the TAMs and WSB, where these features result from broad flexure of the East Antarctic lithosphere and uplift along its western edge due to thermal conduction from hotter mantle beneath West Antarctica. Locally thicker crust may explain the ~1 km of additional topography in the northern TAMs compared to the central TAMs. Dataset Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Korea Polar Research Institute Ross Island Ross Sea West Antarctica DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctica Ross Island Transantarctic Mountains Wilkes Subglacial Basin ENVELOPE(145.000,145.000,-75.000,-75.000) |
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DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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language |
English |
topic |
Antarctica |
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Antarctica Hansen, Samantha Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
topic_facet |
Antarctica |
description |
The Transantarctic Mountains (TAMs) are the largest non-collisional mountain range on Earth. Their origin, as well as the origin of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB) along the inland side of the TAMs, have been widely debated, and a key constraint to distinguish between competing models is the underlying crustal structure. Previous investigations have examined this structure but have primarily focused on a small region of the central TAMs near Ross Island, providing little along-strike constraint. In this study, we use data from the new Transantarctic Mountains Northern Network and from five stations operated by the Korea Polar Research Institute to investigate the crustal structure beneath a previously unexplored portion of the TAMs. Using S-wave receiver functions and Rayleigh wave phase velocities, crustal thickness and average crustal shear velocity (Vs) are resolved within ±4 km and ±0.1 km/s, respectively. The crust thickens from ~20 km near the Ross Sea coast to ~46 km beneath the northern TAMs, which is somewhat thicker than that imaged in previous studies beneath the central TAMs. The crust thins to ~41 km beneath the WSB.Vs ranges from ~3.1-3.9 km/s, with slower velocities near the coast. Our findings are consistent with a flexural origin for the TAMs and WSB, where these features result from broad flexure of the East Antarctic lithosphere and uplift along its western edge due to thermal conduction from hotter mantle beneath West Antarctica. Locally thicker crust may explain the ~1 km of additional topography in the northern TAMs compared to the central TAMs. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Hansen, Samantha |
author_facet |
Hansen, Samantha |
author_sort |
Hansen, Samantha |
title |
Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
title_short |
Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
title_full |
Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
title_fullStr |
Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
title_full_unstemmed |
Crustal Structure beneath the Northern Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin: Implications for Tectonic Origins |
title_sort |
crustal structure beneath the northern transantarctic mountains and wilkes subglacial basin: implications for tectonic origins |
publisher |
U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.15784/601194 http://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601194 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(145.000,145.000,-75.000,-75.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctica Ross Island Transantarctic Mountains Wilkes Subglacial Basin |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Ross Sea West Antarctica Ross Island Transantarctic Mountains Wilkes Subglacial Basin |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Korea Polar Research Institute Ross Island Ross Sea West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Korea Polar Research Institute Ross Island Ross Sea West Antarctica |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-SA |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.15784/601194 |
_version_ |
1766008631713595392 |