In Antarctica, the severe climatic conditions and the thick ice sheet that covers the largest and most internal part of the continent make it particularly difficult to systematically carry out geophysical and geodetic observations on a continental scale. It prevents the comprehensive understanding of both the onshore and offshore geology as well as the relationship between the inner part of East Antarctica (EA) and the coastal sector of Victoria Land (VL). With the aim to reduce this gap, in this paper multiple geophysical dataset collected since the 1980s in Antarctica by Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) were integrated with geodetic observations. In particular, the analyzed data includes: (i) Geodetic time series from Trans Antarctic Mountains DEFormation (TAMDEF), and Victoria Land Network for DEFormation control (VLNDEF) GNSS stations installed in Victoria Land; (ii) the integration of on-shore (ground points data and airborne) gravity measurements in Victoria Land and marine gravity surveys performed in the Ross Sea and the narrow strip of Southern Ocean facing the coasts of northern Victoria Land. Gravity data modelling has improved the knowledge of the Moho depth of VL and surrounding the offshore areas. By the integration of geodetic and gravitational (or gravity) potential results it was possible to better constrain/identify four geodynamic blocks characterized by homogeneous geophysical signature: the Southern Ocean to the N, the Ross Sea to the E, the Wilkes Basin to the W, and VL in between. The last block is characterized by a small but significant clockwise rotation relative to East Antarctica. The presence of a N-S to NNW-SSE 1-km step in the Moho in correspondence of the Rennick Geodynamic Belt confirms the existence of this crustal scale discontinuity, possibly representing the tectonic boundary between East Antarctica and the northern part of VL block, as previously proposed by some geological studies.
Abstract. We present here LARGE 0.2.0 (Lithosphere AsthenospheRe Geodynamic Evolution) a geodynamic modelling Python package that implements a flexible and user friendly tool for the geodynamic/modelling community. It simulates 2D large scale geodynamic processes by solving the conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy by a finite difference method with the moving tracers technique. LARGE uses advanced modern numerical libraries and algorithms but unlike common simulation code written in Fortran or C this code is written entirely in Python. Simulations are driven by configuration files that define thoroughly the lithologies and the parameters that distinguish the model. Documentation for them and for all the modules is included in the package together with a complete set of examples and utilities. The package can be used to reproduce results of published studies and models or to experiment new simulations. LARGE can run in serial mode on desktop computers but can take advantage of MPI to run in parallel on multi node HPC systems.
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