Geology of the Continental Margin of Enderby and Mac. Robertson Lands, East Antarctica: Insights from a Regional Data Se
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Springer 2005
Geology of the continental margin of Enderby and Mac. Robertson Lands, East Antarctica: Insights from a regional data set H.M.J. Stagg1,* J.B. Colwel1, N.G. Direen2, P.E. O’Brien1, G. Bernardel1, I. Borissova1, B.J. Brown3 & T. Ishirara4 1
Geoscience Australia, Camberra, ACT, Australia Continental Evolution Research Group, University of Adelaide, SA, Australia, 3 School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia 4 Geological Survey of Japan, Tsukuba, Japan; *Corresponding author (Phone: +61-2-6249-9343; Fax: +61-2-6249-9920; E-mail: [email protected]) 2
Received 11 November 2003; accepted 30 October 2004
Abstract In 2001 and 2002, Australia acquired an integrated geophysical data set over the deep-water continental margin of East Antarctica from west of Enderby Land to offshore from Prydz Bay. The data include approximately 7700 km of high-quality, deep-seismic data with coincident gravity, magnetic and bathymetry data, and 37 non-reversed refraction stations using expendable sonobuoys. Integration of these data with similar quality data recorded by Japan in 1999 allows a new regional interpretation of this sector of the Antarctic margin. This part of the Antarctic continental margin formed during the breakup of the eastern margin of India and East Antarctica, which culminated with the onset of seafloor spreading in the Valanginian. The geology of the Antarctic margin and the adjacent oceanic crust can be divided into distinct east and west sectors by an interpreted crustal boundary at approximately 58 E. Across this boundary, the continent–ocean boundary (COB), defined as the inboard edge of unequivocal oceanic crust, steps outboard from west to east by about 100 km. Structure in the sector west of 58 E is largely controlled by the mixed rift-transform setting. The edge of the onshore Archaean– Proterozoic Napier Complex is downfaulted oceanwards near the shelf edge by at least 6 km and these rocks are interpreted to underlie a rift basin beneath the continental slope. The thickness of rift and pre-rift rocks cannot be accurately determined with the available data, but they appear to be relatively thin. The margin is overlain by a blanket of post-rift sedimentary rocks that are up to 6 km thick beneath the lower continental slope. The COB in this sector is interpreted from the seismic reflection data and potential field modelling to coincide with the base of a basement depression at 8.0–8.5 s two-way time, approximately 170 km oceanwards of the shelf-edge bounding fault system. Oceanic crust in this sector is highly variable in character, from rugged with a relief of more than 1 km over distances of 10–20 km, to rugose with low-amplitude relief set on a long-wavelength undulating basement. The crustal velocity profile appears unusual, with velocities of 7.6–7.95 km s)1 being recorded at several stations at a depth that gives a thickness of crust of only 4 km. If these velocities are from mantle, then the thin crust may be due to the presence of fracture zones. Alternatively, the ve
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