Airborne-based geophysical investigation in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

Abstract

Antarctica represents a key component in the investigation of the geological history and reconstruction of the supercontinents Rodinia and Gondwana. Remnants of the formation and disintegration of these former land masses can be found, although great uncertainties remain in the location of tectonic boundaries beneath the ice sheet of Antarctica due to general lack of outcrops and the limited amount of geological data. Space and airborne measurements are the only possibility to obtain comprehensive spatial data coverage of geophysical data over the extensive large polar areas. The thesis displays a compilation of a homogeneous database for the DML region from 14 W to 20 E and from 70 S to 78.5 S with detailed boundaries of geologic and tectonic structures. With respect to earlier conducted geophysical investigations in DML, up to 85% of the gravity data and 65% of the magnetic data, presented in this thesis, cover unexplored regions and contribute therefore a large amount of new data to the Antarctic geological research.