New airborne-gravity and satellite gravity views of crustal structure in Antarctica

• Main Authors: Ferraccioli, F, Kusznir, N. J, Scheinert, M, Jordan, T. A, Bell, R. E, Blankenship, D. D, Young, D. A, Aitken, A, Forsberg, R, Anderson, L, Jokat, W, Mieth, M, ARMADILLO, EGIDIO
• Other Authors: Armadillo, Egidio
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Antarctic; East Antarctica; Dronning Maud Land; Transantarctic Mountains; Wilkes Subglacial Basin; Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11567/855739

Gravity anomalies provide a tool to study crustal structure, effective elastic thickness, and isostatic and tectonic processes. Over the last 10 years major airborne gravity surveys were flown by the international community over several Antarctic frontiers. The longer-wavelength Antarctic gravity anomaly field is increasingly better resolved with satellite-gravity. These recent airborne and satellite gravity datasets provide novel perspectives on Antarctic crustal structure and geodynamic evolution. We review results from some of these surveys over the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, Dronning Maud Land, the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, the Transantarctic Mountains and the West Antarctic Rift System and present gravity modelling outputs of crustal thickness for these regions. We contrast these gravity results with a seismically-derived estimation of Antarctic crustal thickness (Baranov and Morelli, 2013, Tectonophys). Anomalously thick East Antarctic crust lies beneath the Gamburtsev Mountains and parts of Dronning Maud Land (50-58 km). Crustal thickening may stem from the collision of a mosaic of East Antarctic crustal provinces in Meso to Neoproterozoic times (Ferraccioli et al., 2011, Nature), or during younger Edicaran to early Cambrian “Pan-African age” orogenic events. The preservation of such thick crust provides significant support for the high bedrock topography in East Antarctica. Additional flexural uplift along the flanks of the Permian to Cretaceous East Antarctic Rift System helps explain the enigmatic Gamburtsev Mountains. Lithospheric flexure along the flank of the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) may explain the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM), the longest and highest non-compressional mountain range on Earth. Whether the Wilkes Subglacial Basin also developed in response to lithospheric flexure is debated. Our gravity models image thicker crust beneath the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) (ca 40 km thick), compared to the relatively thinner crust (30-35 km) beneath the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (Jordan ...