Collaborative Research: Heat Source and Flux Distributions in the Western Ross Sea Seafloor

了解冰冻圈底部热量的来源和性质对于破译南极洲及其海洋冰的范围和停留时间至关重要。 对控制冰盖稳定性的参数的限制、地壳对冰的加载和卸载的反应以及火山活动和地球内部的热量对覆冰的影响，是全球气候变化界广泛关注的问题。 本研究的目的是确定和记录罗斯海西南部海底的热源和热通量的分布。 地热通量是形成和控制冰流、海洋环流和生态系统的基本参数之一，与冰下水文及其对冰盖滑动和内部变形能力的影响有关。尽管重要性，特别是在南极环境中，有一些调查在罗斯海岩石圈热通量如何有助于随着时间的推移冰冻圈动力学。项目研究地点位于罗斯海西部海底，包括恐怖裂谷，这是西南极裂谷系最年轻的延伸阶段，是世界上最大的裂谷之一，也是唯一被大陆冰盖覆盖的裂谷。罗斯海西部岩石圈变薄，恐怖裂谷包含从500万年到现在的活火山活动，这表明上新世-第四纪断层运动以及这一时期冰盖范围和厚度的动态变化与岩浆活动同时发生，本项目将对罗斯海西部海底进行船上调查。收集的数据集包括海底热流/传导率测量、实时海底可视化、水柱热液信号采集和通过疏浚进行岩石取样。热流和直接海底观测将为海底-海洋相互作用提供前所未有的背景，解决水柱中的一些地球化学循环（例如，海底火山活动和由此产生的热液系统对水柱的化学和营养物贡献）限制罗斯海生态系统。 汇编所有数据将能够检验以下假设：罗斯海西部的岩浆侵入和火山活动是影响该区域海洋-冰冻圈系统动态的主要岩石圈热源。 收集的数据还将使我们能够完善当前的时间序列和驱动世界上主要大陆裂谷系统之一的地球动力学。 该项目的可获取数据将是新的地理空间信息数据，包括该地区所有正在进行的地球物理网格，可通过NSF资助的数据存储库公开获取。 在获得地球化学和地质年代学资料后，剩余的岩石样本将在极地岩石储存库存档。 该项目还将培养1名博士后、2名研究生和至少3名本科生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding the origins and nature of heat available at the base of the cryosphere is essential in deciphering the extent and residence time of the ice in Antarctica and its oceans. Constraints on parameters that control ice-sheet stability, response of the crust to ice loading and unloading, and the effects of volcanism and heat from Earth’s interior on overlying ice is of broad interest to the global climate change community. The goal of this study is to identify and to document the distribution of heat source and heat flux within the seafloor of the southwestern Ross Sea. Geothermal heat flux is one of the basic parameters that shape and control ice flow, ocean circulation, and ecosystem, connecting with subglacial hydrology and its influence on the ability of the ice sheet to slide and internally deform. Despite the importance, particularly in the Antarctic environments, there have been few investigations made in the Ross Sea on how lithospheric heat flux contributes to cryospheric dynamics over time. The project study site in the western Ross Sea seafloor comprises the Terror Rift, which represents the youngest phase of extension within the West Antarctic Rift System, one of the world’s largest rifts and the only one covered by continental ice sheets. The thinned western Ross Sea lithosphere and Terror Rift encompasses active volcanism that range from 5 million years to present-day, suggesting that Pliocene-Quaternary fault movement and dynamic changes in ice sheet extent and thickness over this period are concurrent with magmatic activities.This project will conduct a shipboard survey of the western Ross Sea seafloor. The datasets to be collected include seafloor heatflow/conductivity measurements, real-time seafloor visualization, water-column hydrothermal signal acquisition, and rock sampling via dredging. Heat flow and direct seafloor observations will provide an unprecedented context for seafloor-ocean interactions, addressing some of the biogeochemical cycles in the water column (e.g., chemical and nutrients contributions to the water column from seafloor volcanism and resultant hydrothermal systems) in constraining Ross Sea ecosystems. The compilation of all the data will enable the testing of hypotheses that magmatic intrusion and volcanism in the western Ross Sea is the primary lithospheric heat source that has influenced the dynamics of the ocean-cryosphere system in this region. Data collected will also allow us to refine current timeseries and geodynamics that drive one of the world’s major continental rift systems. Deliverables from this project will be new geospatial information data, including all the underway geophysics grids of the area, publicly available via NSF funded data repositories. After acquiring geochemistry and geochronology, the remaining rock samples will be archived at the Polar Rock Repository. The project will also train 1 postdoc, 2 graduate students, and at least 3 undergraduate students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.