Tuesday, 28 August 2007
2.PS-64

Geophysical investigations of P3 segment of the Phoenix Ridge in Drake Passage, Antarctica

Young Keun Jin1, Kyu Jung Kim2, Jong Kuk Hong1, Minkyu Park1, Sang Heon Nam1, Joohan Lee1, and Yeadong Kim1. (1) KOPRI, 503 Get-Pearl Tower, Songdo Techno Park, 7-50S ongdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, South Korea, (2) AAT, Bundang, Sungnam, South Korea

New swath bathymetry, gravity, and magnetic data were obtained in the P3 segment of the Phoenix Ridge in Drake Passage, Antarctica. The detailed bathymetry (including a deep valley, a 2500 m-high seamount, seabed faults and depressions) suggests that spreading rates in P3 varied with time, from an intermediate rate off the ridge axis to a slow rate when spreading ceased. Mantle Bouger anomalies reveal that several gravity lows are associated with the seamount and both flanks of the P3 axial valley, and that highs are found at the junction of the ridge axis and the Hero Fracture Zone . A synthetic magnetic model indicates that the positive anomaly on the axial seamount probably results from the seamount eruption and that it post-dates spreading. By removing the seamount effect, the cessation of P3 spreading is interpreted at about 3.6 Ma, earlier than the 3.3 Ma of previous studies.