Thursday, 30 August 2007 - 1:50 PM
4.P1.A-2
New aeromagnetic results from the Thwaites Glacier catchment, West Antarctica
John W. Holt1, Donald D. Blankenship1, Fausto Ferraccioli2, D. G. Vaughan2, Duncan A. Young1, Scott D. Kempf1, and Theresa M. Diehl1. (1) Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, J.J. Pickle Research Campus, Bldg. 196, 10100 Burnet Road, Austin, TX 78758, (2) Geological Sciences Division, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, United Kingdom
The Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is a recent focus of attention due to observed changes indicating a negative mass balance associated with glacial thinning and grounding line retreat. These changes are likely driven by oceanic and/or atmospheric processes, but the future response of the ice sheet to changes at the margins will be dictated in large part to the ice sheet's underlying geological character including bed slope, roughness, heat flux, and both sediment and water distribution. A large-scale multi-instrumented airborne survey of this region conducted in 2004-05 provides important new information on these conditions. We will present new aeromagnetic data resulting from this survey to reveal constraints on the subglacial geology in this important region and potential controls on ice dynamics.