New continental margin magnetic anomalies of East Antarctica

Over the past decade, Australian, Norwegian and Russian marine surveys have collected integrated seismic, gravity and magnetic data in the southern Indian Ocean. The more than 350,000 line-km of new airborne and marine magnetic observations for the East Antarctic continental margin have been compiled into an improved definition of crustal magnetic anomaly patterns. This compilation provides important new constraints on the breakup processes and igneous activity related to the formation of the passive margin of East Antarctica. The eastern sector of the map from Bruce Rise in the west to the D'Urville Sea in the east is largely dominated by seafloor spreading magnetic anomalies. The ‘Adélie Rift Block’ of highly stretched and extensively faulted continental crust is associated with a smooth anomaly fabric. Abrupt magnetic anomaly changes along the oceanic-continent transition in the Cooperation Sea including the Enderby Basin Anomaly extend for more than 1680 km from the Kerguelen Plateau towards the Cosmonaut Sea. Three sectors of the East Antarctic continental margin exhibit pronounced disparities in the anomaly patterns that strongly suggest different modes of seafloor formation. Strong positive seafloor magnetic anomalies mark the southern margin of the Kerguelen Plateau, the Maud Rise and adjacent areas in the Riiser-Larsen Sea. The new compilation suggests that at least 300 km of the Enderby Basin and Shackleton Basin may be part of the Cretaceous Kerguelen Volcanic Province and possibly maps an abandoned ‘fossil’ spreading center in the central Enderby Basin. The majority of the published age models for the Enderby Basin and “Australian sector” of the East Antarctic margin are not in agreement with the structural grain of magnetic anomalies in the newly compiled map

Air and shipborne magnetic surveys of the Antarctic into the 21st century

The Antarctic geomagnetics' community remains very active in crustal anomaly mapping. More than 1.5 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 previously were not in the public domain significantly upgrade the ADMAP compilation. Aeromagnetic flights over East Antarctica have been concentrated in the Transantarctic Mountains, the Prince Charles Mountains – Lambert Glacier area, and western Dronning Maud Land (DML) — 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 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 Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province project 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 Collaboration for Exploration of the Cryosphere through Aerogeophysical Profiling promises to shed light on subglacial lithology and identify crustal boundaries for the central Antarctic Plate. Since the 1996/97 season, the Alfred Wegener Institute has collected 90,000 km of aeromagnetic data along a 1200 km long segment of the East Antarctic coast over western DML. Recent cruises by Australian, German, Japanese, Russian, British, and American researchers have contributed to long-standing studies of the Antarctic continental margin. Along the continental margin of East Antarctica west of Maud Rise to the George V Coast of Victoria Land, the Russian Polar Marine Geological Research Expedition and Geoscience Australia obtained 80,000 and 20,000 line-km, respectively, of integrated seismic, gravity and magnetic data. Additionally, US expeditions collected 128,000 line-km of shipborne magnetic data in the Ross Sea sector