Antarctica's Geological History Reflected in Sedimentary Radiogenic Isotopes

沉积放射性同位素反映的南极洲地质历史

• 批准号: 0538580
• 负责人: Sidney Hemming
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0538580&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Antarctica; Geological; History; Reflected; Sedimentary

This project studies sediment from the ocean floor to understand Antarctica's geologic history. Glacially eroded from the Antarctic continent, these sediments may offer insight into the 99% Antarctica covered by ice. The work's central focus is determining crust formation ages and thermal histories for three key areas of East Antarctica--Prydz Bay, eastern Weddell Sea, and Wilkes Land--through a combination of petrography, bulk sediment geochemistry and radiogenic isotopes, as well as isotope chronology of individual mineral grains. One specific objective is characterizing the composition of the Gamburtsev Mountains through studies of Eocene fluvial sediments from Prydz Bay. In addition to furthering our understanding of the hidden terrains of Antarctica, these terrigenous sediments will also serve as a natural laboratory to evaluate the effects of continental weathering on the Hf/Nd isotope systematics of seawater. An important broader impact of the project is providing exciting research projects for graduate and postdoctoral students using state of the art techniques in geochemistry.

该项目研究海底沉积物，以了解南极洲的地质历史。这些沉积物是由南极大陆冰川侵蚀而成的，可以帮助我们了解 99% 的南极洲被冰覆盖的情况。这项工作的中心重点是通过岩相学、大量沉积物地球化学和放射性同位素以及单个矿物颗粒的同位素年代学的结合，确定东南极洲三个关键区域——普里兹湾、威德尔海东部和威尔克斯地——的地壳形成年龄和热历史。其中一个具体目标是通过对普里兹湾始新世河流沉积物的研究来表征甘布尔采夫山脉的组成。除了进一步加深我们对南极洲隐藏地形的了解之外，这些陆源沉积物还将作为一个天然实验室来评估大陆风化对海水 Hf/Nd 同位素系统的影响。该项目的一个重要的更广泛的影响是利用最先进的地球化学技术为研究生和博士后学生提供令人兴奋的研究项目。