Electrical structure across a major ice-covered fault belt in northern Victoria Land (East Antarctica)

A Geomagnetic Depth Sounding profile was performed across the glaciated Rennick Graben and the adjacent fault-bounded terranes of northern Victoria Land in East Antarctica. Induction arrows analysis and a 2D inversion model provide a unique deep electrical resistivity window beneath these fault zones. The electrical resistivity break across the Lanterman Fault is apparently restricted to the upper crust, suggesting that this strike-slip fault may not represent a deep lithospheric suture. Further east, a westward-dipping conductor is traced to a depth of 40 km beneath the Robertson Bay Terrane. It may image a remnant of the paleo-Pacific oceanic plate, which subducted beneath the Bowers Terrane. Within the Wilson Terrane, the Rennick Graben is an upper-crust resistive block. The Rennick Graben lacks a deep crustal or upper mantle conductor, in contrast to several continental rifts. However, similar resistive lower crust underlies some other major strike-slip fault belts

Recent aeromagnetic and deep electromagnetic exploration projects in East Antarctica

Airborne geophysical surveys play a pivotal role in imaging subglacial geology and characterizing broad areas of the Antarctic liothsphere. Ground-based geophysics, coupled with airborne geophysics and geology, is essential to further elucidate crustal structure and tectonics. Recent Italian exploration projects have focused on three major tectonic elements over East Antarctica: i) The Transantarctic Mountains, ii) the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, and iii) the Early Palaeozoic terranes of northern Victoria Land. We review the main goals of four recent exploration projects performed between 1999-00 and the latest 2003-4 campaigns over this part of East Antarctica. Finally, we present our future collaborative effort (2005-06) aimed at providing further insight into the poorly known, yet highly controversial, Wilkes Subglacial Basin