Publication Date:
2017-10-20
Description:
The Antarctic geomagnetics community remains very active in crustal anomaly mapping. Several international programs have focused on the first-order geophysical mapping of tectonic and geologic structures in the interior of Antarctica and along its continental margins. More than 1.3 million line-km of new air- and shipborne data have been acquired over the past decade by the international community in Antarctica. These new data together with surveys that were not previously in the public domain significantly upgrade the ADMAP compilation for crustal studies of the Antarctic. Aeromagnetic flights over East Antarctica have been concentrated in the Transantarctic Mountains, the Prince Charles Mountains-Lambert Glacier area, and western Dronning Maud Land Coats Land. Additionally, surveys were conducted over Lake Vostok and the western part of Marie Byrd Land by the US Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR) projects and over the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the austral summer of 2004/2005 by a collaborative US/UK aerogeophysical campaign. New aeromagnetic data over the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains (120,000 line-km), acquired within the IPY Antarcticas Gamburtsev Province (AGAP) project during the 2008/09 field season reveal fundamental geologic features beneath the East Antarctic Ice sheet critical to understanding Precambrian continental growth processes. Roughly 100,000 line-km of magnetic data obtained within the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project (ICECAP) promises to shed light on subglacial lithology and identify crustal boundaries for the central Antarctic Plate. Since 1996/97 season, the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) has collected 90,000 km of aeromagnetic data along a 1200 km long segment of the East Antarctic coast over western Dronning Maud Land (DML). The aircraft flight pattern was extended by five airborne VISA project surveys (~99,000 km) over largely unexplored regions of western and central DML. The Antarctic continental margin is the traditional sphere of scientific interest of the Australian, Japanese, Russian and USA researchers who conducted recent cruises into this region. The programs of the Russian Polar Marine Geological Research Expedition (PMGRE) and Geoscience Australia conducted an integrated geophysical survey that obtained 80,000 and 20,000 line-km, respectively, of seismic, gravity and magnetic data along the continental margin of East Antarctica from the Astrid Ridge to George V Coast of Victoria Land. In addition, some 83,000 line-km of shipborne magnetic data were collected by US expeditions in the Ross Sea sector. Thus, with the imminent release of the survey data that went into the initial map and momentum building for the next generation map that will significantly strengthen the scientific legacy of the 2007-09 IPY.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Conference
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notRev
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