Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:29:56.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An assessment of the gravity signature of the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2016

Brad T. Bailey ,
Peter J. Morgan  and
Mark A. Lackie
Brad T. Bailey
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia Current address: Oil Search Ltd, 1 Bligh St, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Peter J. Morgan
Affiliation:
School of Information Sciences and Engineering, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Mark A. Lackie*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
*
*Corresponding author: mark.lackie@mq.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A gravity survey was conducted on the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica, during the 2004–05 summer season. The aim of the study was to investigate the subsurface geology of the Windmill Islands area. Ninety-seven gravity stations were established. Additionally, 49 observations from a survey in 1993–94 were re-reduced and merged with the 2004–05 data. A three-dimensional subsurface model was constructed from the merged gravity dataset to determine the subsurface geology of the Windmill Islands. The main country rock in the Windmill Islands is a Garnet-bearing Granite Gneiss. A relatively dense intrusive charnockite unit, the Ardery Charnockite, generates the dominant gravity high of the study area and has been modelled to extend to depths of 7–13 km. It has moderate to steep contacts against the surrounding Garnet-bearing Granite Gneiss. The Ardery Charnockite surrounds a less dense granite pluton, the Ford Granite, which is modelled to a depth of 6–12 km and creates a localized gravity low. This granitic pluton extends at depth towards the east. The modelling process has also shown that Mitchell Peninsula is linked to the adjacent Law Dome ice cap by an ‘ice ramp’ of approximately 100 m thickness.

Keywords

Ardery CharnockitedensityFord Granitegeologyice rampMitchell Peninsula
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 115 - 126
Check for updates
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Australian Antarctic Division . 1997. Windmill Islands 1:50000 map, 2nd ed. Hobart, TAS: Australian Antarctic Division.Google Scholar
Blight, D.F. & Oliver, R.L. 1977. The metamorphic geology of the Windmill Islands, Antarctica: a preliminary account. Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 24, 239–262.Google Scholar
Blight, D.F. & Oliver, R.L. 1982. Aspects of the geologic history of the Windmill Islands, Antarctica. In Craddock, C., ed. Antarctic geoscience. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 445–454.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.L. 1964. Glaciological studies at the Wilkes Station, Budd Coast, Antarctica. Antarctic Research Series, 2, 1–36.Google Scholar
Cameron, R.L., Goldich, S.S. & Hottman, J.H. 1960. Radioactive age of rocks from the Windmill Islands, Budd Coast, Antarctica. Stockholm Contributions to Geology, 6, 1–6.Google Scholar
Geldart, L.P., Gill, D.E. & Sharma, B. 1966. Gravity anomalies of two-dimensional faults. Geophysics, 31, 372–397.Google Scholar
Goodwin, I.D. 1993. Holocene deglaciation, sea level change and the emergence of the Windmill Islands, Budd Coast, Antarctica. Quaternary Research, 40, 70–80.Google Scholar
Goodwin, I.D. & Zweck, C. 2000. Glacio-isostasy and glacial ice load at Law Dome, Wilkes Land, East Antarctica. Quaternary Research, 53, 285–293.Google Scholar
Grikurov, G.E., Kamenev, E.N. & Kameneva, G.I. 1982. Granitoid complexes in Antarctica. In Craddock, C., ed. Antarctic geoscience. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 695–701.Google Scholar
Hammer, S. 1939. Terrain corrections for gravimeter stations. Geophysics, 4, 184–194.Google Scholar
Haydon, S. 1994. Windmill Islands gravity survey, 93/94 ANARE. Melbourne: Melbourne University Report, 10 pp.Google Scholar
Hollin, J.T., Cronk, C. & Robertson, R. 1961. I.G.Y. Wilkes Station glaciology, 1958. The Ohio State University Research Foundation, Project 825, 2, 10.Google Scholar
Kizaki, K. 1972. Sequence of metamorphism and deformation in the Mawson Charnockite of East Antarctica. In Adie, R.J., ed. Antarctic geology and geophysics. Oslo: Universititetsforlaget, 527–530.Google Scholar
Lemoine, F.G., Kenyon, S.C., Factor, J.K., Trimmer, R.G., Pavlis, N.K., Chinn, D.S., Cox, C.M., Klosko, S.M., Luthcke, S.B., Torrence, M.H., Wang, Y.M., Williamson, R.G., Pavlis, E.C., Rapp, R.H. & Olson, T.R. 1998. The development of the joint NASA GSFC and NIMA geopotential model EGM96. NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771 USA. Report NASA/TP1998-206861.Google Scholar
Li, X. & Gotze, H.J. 2001. Ellipsoid, geoid, gravity, geodesy, and geophysics. Geophysics, 66, 1660–1668.Google Scholar
McLeod, I.R. & Gregory, C.M. 1966. Geological investigations along the Antarctic coast between longitude 108°E and 166°E. Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition Report--Geology, A83, 53.Google Scholar
Mikhalsky, E.V., Sheraton, J.W. & Hahne, K. 2006. Charnockite composition in relation to the tectonic evolution of East Antarctica. Gondwana Research, 9, 379–397.Google Scholar
Mikuska, J., Pasteka, R. & Marusiak, I. 2006. Estimation of distant relief effect in gravimetry. Geophysics, 71, 159–169.Google Scholar
Morelli, G.C., Honkasalo, T., McConnel, R.K., Tanner, J.G., Szabo, B., Uotilla, U. & Whalen, C.T. 1974. The International Gravity Standardization Net 1971 (IGSN71). International Association of Geodesy Special Publication, No. 4, 194 pp.Google Scholar
Morgan, P.J. 2011. GPS calibration procedures for the Windmill Islands and Law Dome gravity surveys. In Bailey, B.T. The Law Dome ice cap and Windmill Islands, East Antarctica: a gravity-based study of ice mass balance and subglacial geology. PhD thesis, Macquarie University, 252–263. [Unpublished].Google Scholar
Paul, E., Stuwe, K., Teasdale, J. & Worley, B. 1995. Structural and metamorphic geology for the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica: field evidence for repeated tectonothermal activity. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 42, 453–469.Google Scholar
Pfitzner, M.L. 1980. The Wilkes ice cap project 1966. ANARE Scientific Reports--Glaciological, A127, 26–29.Google Scholar
Post, N.J. 2000. Unravelling Gondwana fragments: an integrated structural, isotopic and petrographic investigation of the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 213 pp. [Unpublished].Google Scholar
Post, N.J., Henson, B.J. & Kinny, P.D. 1997. Two metamorphic episodes during 1340–1180 Ma convergent tectonic event in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. In Ricci, C.A., ed. The Antarctic region: geological evolution and processes. Sienna: Terra Antarctica, 157–161.Google Scholar
Ravich, M.G. 1972. The charnockite problem. In Adie, R.J., ed. Antarctic geology and geophysics. Oslo: Universititetsforlaget, 523–526.Google Scholar
Ravich, M.G. & Voronov, P.S. 1958. Geological structure of the coast of the East Antarctic Continent (between 55° and 110° East longitude). Soviet Geology, 2, 3–26.Google Scholar
Sandwell, D.T. & Smith, W.H.F. 1997. Marine gravity anomaly from Geosat and ERS 1 satellite altimetry. Journal of Geophysical Research--Solid Earth, 102, 10 039–10 054.Google Scholar
SCAR. 2005. Twenty-seventh Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting Cape Town, South Africa, 24 May–4 June 2004. SCAR Bulletin, No. 156, 13–15.Google Scholar
Shewchuk, J.R. 1996. Triangle: engineering a 2D quality mesh generator and delauney triangulator. In Lin, M.C. & Manocha, D., eds. Applied computational geometry: towards geometric engineering, lecture notes in computer science, no. 1148. Berlin: Springer, 203–222.Google Scholar
Smith, W.H.F. & Wessel, P. 1990. Gridding with a continuous curvature splines in tension. Geophysics, 55, 293–305.Google Scholar
Splettstoesser, J. 1992. Antarctic global warming? Nature, 355, 503.Google Scholar
Telford, W.M., Geldart, L.P. & Sheriff, R.E. 1990. Applied geophysics, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 792 pp.Google Scholar
Thiel, E., Bentley, C.R., Ostenso, N.A. & Behrendt, J.C. 1959. Oversnow traverse programs, Byrd and Ellsworth Stations, Antarctica, 1957-1958: seismology, gravity and magnetism. IGY Glaciological Report Series No 2. New York, NY: American Geographical Society, 141 pp.Google Scholar
Walker, D.J. 1966. Wilkes geophysical surveys, Antarctica 1962. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Record 1966/129.Google Scholar
Walker, D.J. 1976. Glaciological and geophysical studies in Wilkes Land, Antarctica, 1962/63. MSc thesis, University of Melbourne, 526 pp. [Unpublished].Google Scholar
Webb, A.W., McDougall, I. & Cooper, J.A. 1964. Potassium – argon dates from the Vincennes Bay region and Oates Land, Antarctica. In Adie, R.J., ed. Antarctic geology. Oslo: Universititetsforlaget, 597–600.Google Scholar
Wellman, P. 1976. Gravity ties to Australian Antarctic bases and Christmas Island, 1967-1975. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Record 1976/11.Google Scholar
Wellman, P., Barlow, B.C. & Murray, A.S. 1985. Gravity base-station network values, Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Report 261, 38 pp.Google Scholar
Williams, I.S., Compston, W., Collerson, K.D. & Arriens, P.A. 1983. A reassessment of the age of the Windmill Metamorphics, Casey area. In Oliver, R.L., James, P.R. & Jago, J.B., eds. Antarctic earth science. Canberra: Australian Academy of Science, 73–76.Google Scholar
Zhang, S.H., Zhao, Y., Liu, X.C., Liu, Y.S., Hou, K.J., Li, C.F. & Ye, H. 2012. U–Pb geochronology and geochemistry of the bedrocks and moraine sediments from the Windmill Islands: implications for Proterozoic evolution of East Antarctica. Precambrian Research, 206, 52–71.Google Scholar