Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice‐Sheet Dynamics

• Main Authors: Aitken, ARA, Li, L, Kulessa, B, Schroeder, D, Jordan, TA, Whittaker, JM, Anandakrishnan, S, Dawson, EJ, Wiens, DA, Eisen, O, Siegert, MJ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) / Wiley 2023
• Subjects: Aitken; Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelves; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/134601; https://doi.org/10.1029/2021rg000767

This is the final version. Available on open access from the American Geophysical Union via the DOI in this record Data Availability Statement: The map of Antarctic sedimentary basins as presented here (version 1.04) is available in GIS-ready format from the Zenodo repository (Aitken et al., 2023a). An updateable version for ongoing community development is available from GitHub (https://github.com/LL-Geo/AntarcticBasins/tree/main) or Zenodo (Aitken et al., 2023b). Data used in mapping are available from sources as cited in text. Knowledge of Antarctica's sedimentary basins builds our understanding of the coupled evolution of tectonics, ice, ocean, and climate. Sedimentary basins have properties distinct from basement-dominated regions that impact ice-sheet dynamics, potentially influencing future ice-sheet change. Despite their importance, our knowledge of Antarctic sedimentary basins is restricted. Remoteness, the harsh environment, the overlying ice sheet, ice shelves, and sea ice all make fieldwork challenging. Nonetheless, in the past decade the geophysics community has made great progress in internationally coordinated data collection and compilation with parallel advances in data processing and analysis supporting a new insight into Antarctica's subglacial environment. Here, we summarize recent progress in understanding Antarctica's sedimentary basins. We review advances in the technical capability of radar, potential fields, seismic, and electromagnetic techniques to detect and characterize basins beneath ice and advances in integrated multi-data interpretation including machine-learning approaches. These new capabilities permit a continent-wide mapping of Antarctica's sedimentary basins and their characteristics, aiding definition of the tectonic development of the continent. Crucially, Antarctica's sedimentary basins interact with the overlying ice sheet through dynamic feedbacks that have the potential to contribute to rapid ice-sheet change. Looking ahead, future research directions include ...