Aeromagnetic and radio echo ice‐sounding measurements over the Dufek Intrusion, Antarctica

Abstract

A combined aeromagnetic and radio echo ice‐sounding survey (4200 km of traverse) made in 1978 in Antarctica over the Dufek layered mafic intrusion of Jurassic age suggests a minimum area of about 50,000 km2, making it comparable in size with the Bushveld Complex of Africa. Comparisons of the magnetic and subglacial topographic profiles illustrate the usefulness of this combination of methods in studying bedrock geology beneath ice‐covered areas. Rocks are exposed in only 3% of the inferred area of the intrusion. Magnetic anomalies measured a few hundred meters above outcrops of the intrusion range in peak‐to‐trough amplitude from ∼50 nT over the lowermost exposed portion of the section in the Dufek Massif to ∼3600 nT over the uppermost part of the section in the Forrestal Range. Theoretical magnetic anomalies, computed from models based on the subice topography fitted to the highest‐amplitude observed magnetic anomalies, required normal and reversed magnetizations ranging from 10−4 to 10−2 emu/cm3 having directions and magnetizations consistent with measurements previously made on oriented samples. This result is interpreted as indicating that the Dufek intrusion cooled through the Curie isotherm during one or more reversals of the earth's magnetic field.