Transfer faults in the western Ross Sea: new evidence from the McMurdo Sound/Ross Ice Shelf aeromagnetic survey (GANOVEX VI)

Abstract

Aeromagnetic data collected on the GANOVEX IV and GANOVEX VI expeditions are combined in this report to give a synoptic view of the western Ross Sea, Antarctica. The addition of the new GANOVEX VI data allows the identification of the southern boundary of the “Ross Sea Unit” — a magnetic unit containing rift-fabric anomalies of the West Antarctic rift system in the Victoria Land basin. Although this boundary has a similar WSW–ENE orientation to the northern boundary, as identified in the GANOVEX IV survey, the newly identified southern magnetic unit (called the “Ross Island and Ice Shelf Edge Unit”) includes evidence of the S–N rift-fabric that is not found in the north, i.e. the rift-fabric continues farther south. The linear boundaries themselves are interpreted as transfer faults as proposed by previous workers for the tectonic development of the Ross Sea area.