Seismic Investigation of Sediment Stratigraphy Beneath the East Antarctic Ice Cap

该奖项支持美国和新西兰联合对南极东部冰盖下从横贯南极山脉到威尔克斯冰川下盆地的沉积物地层进行地震调查的美国部分。科学目标是：1)通过对横贯南极山脉西侧地层结构的成像来检验并为横贯南极山脉的隆升模型提供约束条件；2)通过确定南极东部冰盖下该单元的地理范围来约束费拉尔岩浆的起源模型，从而可以评估岩浆活动模型，包括地幔柱活动与区域裂谷反应的融化；3)通过确定威尔克斯盆地是否含有海洋沉积物，帮助解决关于晚新生代东南极冰盖的气候条件和大小的争论，这些沉积物可能是天狼星组的物质来源，天狼星组是一个包含上新世硅藻的储层，位于跨南极山脉的许多高海拔地区。＊＊＊

9220462 THOMPSON This award supports the U.S. portion of a joint U.S. - New Zealand seismic investigation of the sediment stratigraphy beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet from the Transantarctic Mountains into the Wilkes Subglacial Basin. The scientific objectives are: 1) to test, and provide constraints for, uplift models of the Transantarctic Mountains by imaging the stratigraphic structure of the west side of the Transantarctic Mountains, 2) to constrain models of the origin of Ferrar magmas by determining the geographic extent of this unit under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet so that models of magmatism, involving mantle plume activity versus melting in response to regional rifting, can be evaluated, and 3) to help resolve the debate about the climatic conditions and size of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the late Cenozoic by determining if the Wilkes Basin contains marine sediments that could have been a source of material for the Sirius Formation, a till containing Pliocene diatoms which is located at many high altitude locations in the Transantarctic Mountains. ***