The Marie Byrd Land Margin: Early Seafloor Spreading History

该奖项支持对早期海底的调查 南极洲玛丽伯德陆缘的传播史。 这项工作将仔细绘制磁线理， 重力异常，地形，并在可能的情况下， 地震测定的基底深度。 这项研究将 整合了从 重力、测深和地震信息， 磁异常构造一个新的海底扩张 玛丽伯德陆缘的历史 对这些新数据集的分析及其结果 海底扩张历史将被用来解决 （1）早期开放的 太平洋-南极海脊涉及一个额外的板块， 别林斯高晋板块，还是海岭经历了 非对称非正交扩频 (2)以更好的 太平洋南极海脊的开放历史 它们之间的相对运动 构造块体，这些构造块体危及南极洲西部， 玛丽伯德陆缘的结构和演化 (3)全球板块电路解决方案是否可以通过 第三纪早期太平洋-南极洲的历史 海底扩张

This award supports an investigation of the early seafloor spreading history of the Marie Byrd Land Margin, Antarctica. This effort will carefully map the magnetic lineations, the gravity anomalies, the topography and, where possible, the seismically determined depth to basement. The study will integrate the tectonic lineations determined from the gravity, bathymetry and seismic information with the magnetic anomalies to construct a new seafloor spreading history of the Marie Byrd Land Margin. The analysis of these new data sets and the resultant seafloor spreading history will be used to address the following questions: (1) Did the early opening of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge involve an additional plate, the Bellingshausen Plate, or did the ridge undergo very asymmetric, non-orthogonal spreading? (2) With a better refined opening history for the Pacific Antarctic Ridge, what are the implications for relative motions between the tectonic blocks which compromise West Antarctica and for the structure and evolution of the Marie Byrd Land Margin? (3) Can the global plate circuit solution be enhanced by refining the early Tertiary history of Pacific-Antarctic seafloor spreading?