Thursday, 30 August 2007 - 3:40 PM
4.P2.A-1

Seismic facies and stratigraphy of the Cenozoic succession in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica: implications for tectonic, climatic and glacial history

Christopher R. Fielding1, Stuart A. Henrys2, Terry J. Wilson3, Joanne Whittaker4, and Timothy R. Naish2. (1) Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 214 Bessey Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0340, (2) GNS Science, 1 Fairway Drive, Avalon, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, (3) School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, 125 S. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1522, (4) School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

A new stratigraphic model for the Cenozoic Victoria Land Basin of the West Antarctic Rift is presented. The Early Rift phase comprises wedges of strata confined by early extensional faults, consistent with drainage into discrete, actively subsiding grabens and half-grabens. The Main Rift phase comprises a more extensive lens of strata that thickens symmetrically from the basin margins into a central depocenter. The Passive Thermal Subsidence phase comprises an evenly distributed sheet of strata that does not thicken appreciably into the depocentre. The Renewed Rifting phase has been further divided into 1, a lower interval, in which the section thickens passively towards a central depocentre, and 2. an upper interval, in which more dramatic thickening patterns are complicated by magmatic activity and associated flexural loading. A major decrease in sediment supply at c. 2 Ma suggests environmental reorganization.

[Manuscript]

See more of Seismic stratigraphy of the Ross Sea and the antarctic margin: Climate archives and tectonic history   ORAL
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