Antarctic Tectonics: Constraints from an ERS-1 Satellite Marine Gravity Field

A high-resolution gravity field of poorly charted and ice-covered ocean near West Antarctica, from the Ross Sea east to the Weddell Sea, has been derived with the use of satellite altimetry, including ERS-1 geodetic phase, wave-form data. This gravity field reveals regional tectonic fabric, such as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 276; no. 5312; pp. 556 - 560
Main Authors McAdoo, David, Laxon, Seymour
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 25.04.1997
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects
Antarctic regions
Antarctica
Applied geophysics
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Gravitational anomalies
Gravitational fields
Gravity
Internal geophysics
Lineations
Marine
Oceans
Plate tectonics
Satellites
Sea-floor spreading
Seafloor spreading
Seas
Ships
Tectonic plate interactions
Tectonics
Tectonics. Structural geology. Plate tectonics
Topography
Ross Sea
Antarctica
Weddell Sea
PS, Antarctica
PSW, Weddell Sea
PSW, Antarctica, West Antarctica
gravity field
sea-floor spreading
remote sensing
satellite methods
lineation
fabric
Antarctic Ocean
fault zones
polar regions
plate boundaries
tectonics
fractures
altimetry
high resolution
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Summary:A high-resolution gravity field of poorly charted and ice-covered ocean near West Antarctica, from the Ross Sea east to the Weddell Sea, has been derived with the use of satellite altimetry, including ERS-1 geodetic phase, wave-form data. This gravity field reveals regional tectonic fabric, such as gravity lineations, which are the expression of fracture zones left by early (65 to 83 million years ago) Pacific-Antarctic sea-floor spreading that separated the Campbell Plateau and New Zealand continent from West Antarctica. These lineations constrain plate motion history and confirm the hypothesis that Antarctica behaved as two distinct plates, separated from each other by an extensional Bellingshausen plate boundary active in the Amundsen Sea before about 61 million years ago.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.276.5312.556