Electrical structure across a major ice-covered fault belt in northern Victoria Land (East Antarctica)

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Armadillo, E., Ferraccioli, F., Tabellario, G., Bozzo, E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2004
• Subjects: Glaciology; Earth Sciences; Bowers; East Antarctica; Pacific; Rennick; Robertson Bay; Victoria Land; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12096/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/12096/1/2004GL019903.pdf; http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0410/2004GL019903/2004GL019903.pdf

A Geomagnetic Depth Sounding profile was performed across the glaciated Rennick Graben and the adjacent fault-bounded terranes of northern Victoria Land in East Antarctica. Induction arrows analysis and a 2D inversion model provide a unique deep electrical resistivity window beneath these fault zones. The electrical resistivity break across the Lanterman Fault is apparently restricted to the upper crust, suggesting that this strike-slip fault may not represent a deep lithospheric suture. Further east, a westward-dipping conductor is traced to a depth of 40 km beneath the Robertson Bay Terrane. It may image a remnant of the paleo-Pacific oceanic plate, which subducted beneath the Bowers Terrane. Within the Wilson Terrane, the Rennick Graben is an upper-crust resistive block. The Rennick Graben lacks a deep crustal or upper mantle conductor, in contrast to several continental rifts. However, similar resistive lower crust underlies some other major strike-slip fault belts.