Antarctica's sedimentary basins and their influence on ice sheet dynamics

Aitken, Alan; Li, Lu; Kulessa, Bernd; Schroeder, Dustin M.; Jordan, Tom A.; Whittaker, Joanne M.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Dawson, Eliza; Wiens, Douglas A.; Eisen, Olaf; Siegert, Martín J.

doi:10.1002/essoar.10510905.2

Cited by 2 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…The map of Antarctic sedimentary basins as presented here (version 1.04) is available in GIS-ready format from the Zenodo repository (Aitken et al, 2023a). An updateable version for ongoing community development is available from GitHub (https://github.com/LL-Geo/AntarcticBasins/tree/main) or Zenodo (Aitken et al, 2023b). Data used in mapping are available from sources as cited in text.…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice‐Sheet Dynamics

Aitken,

Li,

Kulessa

et al. 2023

Reviews of Geophysics

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Knowledge of Antarctica’s sedimentary basins builds our understanding of the coupled evolution of tectonics, ice, ocean, and climate. Sedimentary basins have properties distinct from basement‐dominated regions that impact ice‐sheet dynamics, potentially influencing future ice‐sheet change. Despite their importance, our knowledge of Antarctic sedimentary basins is restricted. Remoteness, the harsh environment, the overlying ice sheet, ice shelves and sea ice all make fieldwork challenging. Nonetheless, in the past decade the geophysics community has made great progress in internationally coordinated data collection and compilation with parallel advances in data processing and analysis supporting a new insight into Antarctica’s subglacial environment. Here, we summarize recent progress in understanding Antarctica’s sedimentary basins. We review advances in the technical capability of radar, potential fields, seismic and electromagnetic techniques to detect and characterize basins beneath ice and advances in integrated multi‐data interpretation including machine‐learning approaches. These new capabilities permit a continent‐wide mapping of Antarctica’s sedimentary basins and their characteristics, aiding definition of the tectonic development of the continent. Crucially, Antarctica’s sedimentary basins interact with the overlying ice sheet through dynamic feedbacks that have the potential to contribute to rapid ice‐sheet change. Looking ahead, future research directions include techniques to increase data coverage within logistical constraints, and resolving major knowledge gaps, including insufficient sampling of the ice‐sheet bed and poor definition of subglacial basin structure and stratigraphy. Translating the knowledge of sedimentary basin processes into ice‐sheet modelling studies is critical to underpin better capacity to predict future change.

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Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice‐Sheet Dynamics

Aitken,

Li,

Kulessa

et al. 2023

Reviews of Geophysics

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“…The most fundamental information needed is the generic rock type of the bed, namely, is the bed loose, unconsolidated sediment, lithified sedimentary rock, or crystalline rock? Aitken et al (2023b) provide a detailed review of Antarctica's sedimentary basins, and the methods employed to determine both the presence of sediment and the sediment thickness. These methods, as well as the methods described in the above sections, are shown in Figure 1.2, as reproduced from Aitken et al (2023b).…”

Section: Basal Roughnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aitken et al (2023b) provide a detailed review of Antarctica's sedimentary basins, and the methods employed to determine both the presence of sediment and the sediment thickness. These methods, as well as the methods described in the above sections, are shown in Figure 1.2, as reproduced from Aitken et al (2023b).…”

Section: Basal Roughnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While there is a continuous drape of sediments across the entire ice shelf, we also image several distinct depocenters; the Western Ross Basin, covering the East Antarctic half of the ice shelf, and several basins on the West Antarctic side, including the Siple Dome Basin and the Crary Trough (Figure 5.1f). These results were incorporated into an Antarctic-wide review of sedimentary basins (Figure 5.1a Aitken et al, 2023b), showing the widespread distribution of similar basins across much of Antarctica. From our findings, we were able to draw a wide range of implications, ranging from tectonic influence on ice dynamics along the Siple Coast to the buried and subsided remnants of an above-sea-level Oligocene mountain range, which likely accommodated alpine glaciers.…”

Section: Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Airborne Geophysical Investigation beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf

Tankersley

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The Ross Ice Shelf controls the flow of ice into the ocean from catchments consisting of both the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets. These catchments hold a volume of ice equivalent to ∼12 m of global sea level rise. To adequately understand how this ice will respond to a warming world requires knowledge of the properties and parameters which influence how the ice sheet behaves. These boundary conditions include fundamental knowledge of the Earth, such as the shape of the bed beneath the ice, the seafloor, and the geologic structures of the upper crust. Knowledge of the physiography and sub-surface geology is severely lacking beneath ice shelves due to their inaccessibility.Here, we use airborne geophysical data from an extensive survey over the Ross Ice Shelf to better understand these boundary conditions. From the analysis of airborne magnetics data, we model the thickness of sediment, the shape of the crystalline basement, and the likely locations of faults throughout the crust under the Ross Ice Shelf. We find a continuous drape of sediment over the seafloor, including deep and narrow fault-bound sedimentary basins beneath the Siple Coast.Using airborne gravity data, and distributed seismic constraints over the ice shelf, we develop and implement a gravity inversion to recover a higher-resolution bathymetry model beneath the ice shelf. This bathymetry model and our quantifica- tion of spatial uncertainty highlight locations likely important for sub-ice shelf ocean circulation and possible recent pinning points. In the process of these geophysical investigations, we reveal a wide range of insights relating to how bathymetry and geology play a critical role in the past, present, and future dynamics of the ice sheet, and how this region has developed over its tectonic history.

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Antarctica's sedimentary basins and their influence on ice sheet dynamics

Cited by 2 publications

References 337 publications

Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice‐Sheet Dynamics

Antarctic Sedimentary Basins and Their Influence on Ice‐Sheet Dynamics

Airborne Geophysical Investigation beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf

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