Seismic investigation of deep continental structure across the East-West Antarctic 
Boundary

PIs.  Douglas Wiens1, Sridhar Anandakrishnan2, Andrew Nyblade3
1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO  
63130
2. Department of Geology, University of Alabama, Tuscoloosa, AL 35487
3. Department of Geosciences, Penn State University, University Park, PA  16802

The purpose of this project is to study the  tectonic 
development of Antarctica by investigating crust and upper mantle structure beneath the 
East-West Antarctic boundary.   We will use a focused broadband seismograph 
deployment  to address two outstanding problems concerning the tectonic development of 
the Antarctic continent:

(1) The origin of the Transantarctic Mountains. Even though the Transantarctic 
Mountains are widely considered a classic example of rift flank uplift, there appears to be 
little consensus about the exact uplift mechanism

(2) The structure of the East Antarctic Craton.   East Antarctica displays the greatest 
modal elevation of any major cratonic block when corrected for glacial loading.  The 
anomalous elevation of East Antarctica may have been an important factor in the onset of 
continental glaciation 

To examine details of the crust and upper mantle structure across the East-West Antarctic 
boundary, we have designed an experiment to install 42 broadband seismic stations for three years.  This is the largest such experiment ever attempted in Antarctica and involves unique challenges in logistics, seismic station design, and data collection and processing.  All the stations will have solar power, and some will augment this with wind generators for the dark winter months.

The results of the experiment will be maps 
of the variation in crustal thickness, upper mantle structure, anisotropy, and mantle 
discontinuity topography across the boundary of East and West Antarctica.  These results 
will provide a solid foundation for understanding the geodynamics of the Antarctic 
continent.