A multi-domain lithospheric model of East Antarctica

• Main Authors: Staal, T, Reading, AM, Halpin, J, Whittaker, J
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: . 2018
• Subjects: Mathematical Sciences; Statistics; Probability Theory; Antarctic; The Antarctic; East Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://www.polar2018.org/; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/131207

The geology of East Antarctica is poorly constrained and covered by ice which can be several kilometers thick,however, these hidden and inaccessible rocks are of major interest in interdisciplinary studies linking the solidEarth and cryosphere. Subglacial geothermal heat flux is an important parameter for ice sheet models anddepends on heat production within the crust, but also the deep geothermal gradient that is defined by thelithospheric structure. Seismic tomography studies derive lithosphere thickness and structure, but the resolution is relatively low, andthe smoothed models don't reflect the amalgamation of lithospheric terranes that formed the continent. Wecombine geophysical constraints from seismic properties and potential field data, with geological knowledgefrom the sparse Antarctic outcrops and from Gondwanan neighbours in a plate reconstruction framework. Weuse Bayesian inference to suggest the most probable boundaries by using a multivariate prior. The boundariesform a segmentation of the Antarctic lithosphere and can be weighted with probabilistic significance andlocation. The result is presented as a first draft of a multi-domain tessellated terrane map of the East Antarcticlithosphere. We believe that this approach will be useful in estimating both basal lithosphere and crustalcontributions to heat flux, and is a robust stepping stone towards more refined models.