Search Results (5)

The Princess Elizabeth Land landscape in East Antarctica was shaped by a complex process, involving the supercontinent’s breakup and convergence cycle. However, the lack of geological knowledge about the subglacial bedrock has made it challenging to understand this process. Our study aimed to investigate the structural characteristics of the subglacial bedrock in the Mount Brown region, utilizing airborne geophysical data collected from the China Antarctic Scientific Expedition in 2015–2017. We reconstructed bedrock density contrast and magnetic susceptibility models by leveraging Tikhonov regularized gravity and magnetic inversions. The deep bedrock in the inland direction exhibited different physical properties, indicating the presence of distinct basement sources. The east–west discontinuity of bedrock changed in the inland areas, suggesting the possibility of large fault structures or amalgamation belts. We also identified several normal faults in the western sedimentary basin, intersected by the southwest section of these survey lines. Furthermore, lithologic separators and sinistral strike-slip faults may exist in the northeast section, demarcating the boundary between Princess Elizabeth Land and Knox Valley. Our study provides new insights into the subglacial geological structure in this region, highlighting the violent impact of the I-A-A-S (Indo-Australo-Antarctic Suture) on the subglacial basement composition. Additionally, by identifying and describing different bedrock types, our study redefines the potential contribution of this region to the paleocontinent splicing process and East Antarctic basement remodeling. Full article

This study demonstrates the results of Russian airborne radio-echo sounding (RES) investigations and also seismic reflection soundings carried out in 1971–2020 over a vast area of coastal part of East Antarctica. It is the first comprehensive summary mapping of these data. Field research, equipment, errors of initial RES data, and methods of gridding are discussed. Ice thickness, ice base elevation, and bedrock topography are presented. The ice thickness across the research area varies from a few meters to 3620 m, and is greatest in the local subglacial depressions. The average thickness is about 1220 m. The total volume of the ice is about 710,500 km${}^3$. The bedrock heights vary from 2860 m below sea level in the ocean bathyal zone to 2040 m above sea level in the Grove Mountains area (4900 m relief). The main directions of the bedrock orographic forms are concentrated mostly in three intervals: 345${}^{\circ }$–30${}^{\circ }$, 45${}^{\circ }$–70${}^{\circ }$, and 70${}^{\circ }$–100${}^{\circ }$. The bottom melting rate was estimated on the basis of the simple Zotikov model. Total annual melting under the study area is about 0.633 cubic meters. The total annual melting in the study area is approximately 1.5 mm/yr. Full article

Antarctic geothermal heat flux is a basic input variable for ice sheet dynamics simulation. It greatly affects the temperature and mechanical properties at the bottom of the ice sheet, influencing sliding, melting, and internal deformation. Due to the fact that the Antarctica is covered by a thick ice sheet, direct measurements of heat flux are very limited. This study was carried out to estimate the regional heat flux in the Antarctic continent through geophysical inversion. Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica is one of the areas in which we have a weak understanding of geothermal heat flux. Through the latest airborne geomagnetic data, we inverted the Curie depth, obtaining the heat flux of bedrock based on the one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction equation. The results indicated that the Curie depth of the Princess Elizabeth Land is shallower than previously estimated, and the heat flux is consequently higher. Thus, the contribution of subglacial heat flux to the melting at the bottom of the ice sheet is likely greater than previously expected in this region. It further provides research clues for the formation of the developed subglacial water system in Princess Elizabeth Land. Full article

The elevation changes of ice sheets have been recognized as an essential climate variable. Long-term time series of these changes are an important parameter to understand climate change, and the longest time-series of ice sheet elevation changes can be derived from combining multiple Ku-band satellite altimetry missions. However, unresolved intermission biases obscure the record. Here, we revise the mathematical model commonly used in the literature to simultaneously correct for intermission bias and ascending–descending bias to ensure the self-consistency and cohesion of the elevation time series across missions. This updated approach is applied to combine Envisat and CryoSat-2 radar altimetry in the period of 2002–2019. We tested this approach by validating it against airborne and satellite laser altimetry. Combining the detailed temporal and spatial evolution of elevation changes with firn densification-modeled volume changes due to surface processes, we found that the Amundsen Sea sector accounts for most of the total volume loss of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), mainly from ice dynamics. However, surface processes dominate the volume changes in the key regions, such as the Totten Glacier sector, Dronning Maud Land, Princess Elizabeth Land, and the Bellingshausen Sea sector. Overall, accelerated volume loss in the West Antarctic continues to outpace the gains observed in the East Antarctic. The total volume change during 2002–2019 for the AIS was −68.7 ± 8.1 km³/y, with an acceleration of −5.5 ± 0.9 km³/y². Full article

The Antarctic ice sheet and the continent both play critical roles in global sea level rise and climate change but they remain poorly understood because data collection is greatly limited by the remote location and hostile conditions there. Airborne platforms have been extensively used in Antarctica due to their capabilities and flexibility and have contributed a great deal of knowledge to both the ice sheet and the continent. The Snow Eagle 601 fixed-wing airborne platform has been deployed by China for Antarctic expeditions since 2015. Scientific instruments on the airplane include an ice-penetrating radar, a gravimeter, a magnetometer, a laser altimeter, a camera and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). In the past five austral seasons, the airborne platform has been used to survey Princess Elizabeth Land, the largest data gap in Antarctica, as well as other critical areas. This paper reviews the scientific operations of Snow Eagle 601 including airborne and ground-based scientific instrumentation, aviation logistics, field data acquisition and processing and data quality control. We summarize the progress of airborne surveys to date, focusing on scientific motivations, data coverage and national and international collaborations. Finally, we discuss potential regions for applications of the airborne platform in Antarctica and developments of the airborne scientific system for future work. Full article