Antarctic Tectonics: Constraints From an ERS-1 Satellite Marine Gravity Field
- 25 April 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 276 (5312) , 556-561
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.276.5312.556
Abstract
A high-resolution gravity field of poorly charted and ice-covered ocean near West Antarctica, from the Ross Sea east to the Weddell Sea, has been derived with the use of satellite altimetry, including ERS-1 geodetic phase, wave-form data. This gravity field reveals regional tectonic fabric, such as gravity lineations, which are the expression of fracture zones left by early (65 to 83 million years ago) Pacific-Antarctic sea-floor spreading that separated the Campbell Plateau and New Zealand continent from West Antarctica. These lineations constrain plate motion history and confirm the hypothesis that Antarctica behaved as two distinct plates, separated from each other by an extensional Bellingshausen plate boundary active in the Amundsen Sea before about 61 million years ago.Keywords
This publication has 21 references indexed in Scilit:
- Resolution of the Scripps/NOAA Marine Gravity Field from satellite altimetryGeophysical Research Letters, 1996
- The Australia‐Pacific boundary and Cenozoic plate motions in the SW Pacific: Some constraints from Geosat dataTectonics, 1995
- Gravity model development for TOPEX/POSEIDON: Joint Gravity Models 1 and 2Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 1994
- Paleomagnetic Tests of Pacific Plate Reconstructions and Implications for Motion Between HotspotsScience, 1994
- Sea ice altimeter processing scheme at the EODCInternational Journal of Remote Sensing, 1994
- Variations in ridge morphology and depth‐age relationships on the Pacific‐Antarctic RidgeJournal of Geophysical Research, 1994
- Seafloor spreading in the Weddell Sea and southwest Atlantic since the Late CretaceousEarth and Planetary Science Letters, 1993
- Mapping the Southwest Indian Ridge with GeosatEos, 1993
- The Cenozoic subduction history of the Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula: ridge crest–trench interactionsJournal of the Geological Society, 1982
- West Antarctica: Problem child of GondwanalandTectonics, 1982