Geophysical characteristics of the Terror Rift, West Antarctica

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the Terror Rift where the last stage of Cenozoic rifting in the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS) took place. The International published and domestic sampled during CHARE seismic reflection profiles are utilized. Combining with drilling data, all the stratigraphic reflections are identified and unified in the entire study area for the subsequent interpretation. The rift fault patterns in the study area can be divided into syn-sedimentary faults, intra-layer faults and negative flower structure. According to faulting, we delineated the east and north boundary of the Terror Rift. Moreover, Cenozoic faulting activities are divided into three stages with strongly inheritance between each one of them. The timing of faulting activities gradually becomes younger from the Adare Basin in the north to the Terror Rift in the south, which is attributable to the transmission of rifting from north to south. In order to further reveal the geophysical characteristics of the study area, we investigated effective elastic thickness (EET) based on the fan wavelet transform technique. The anomalously low EET anomalies observed in the front of the Transantarctic Mountains(TAMs) is related to the rifting and magmatism in the late Cenozoic, probably indicating the extensional area of the western Ross Sea.

Keywords

• west antarctica
• terror rift
• seismic reflection profiles
• faulting
• effective elastic thickness