New Magnetic Anomaly Constraints on the Antarctic Crust

Abstract

AbstractThe Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project’s first‐generation magnetic anomaly map (ADMAP‐1) was produced for the region south of 60°S from about 1.5 million line‐kms of airborne and marine magnetic anomaly data (Golynsky et al., 2001; https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our‐data/maps/thematic‐maps/admap‐magnetic‐anomaly‐map‐of‐the‐antarctic/). The second‐generation ADMAP‐2 compilation (Golynsky et al., 2017; https://doi.org/10.22663/ADMAP.V2) incorporated an additional roughly 2.0 million line‐kms of airborne and marine magnetic anomaly data from international mapping through 2015. The present study integrates satellite magnetic observations from the Swarm mission with the near‐surface data of ADMAP‐2 to help fill the regional coverage gaps and better define the altitude behavior of the Antarctic's magnetic anomalies for enhanced geological analysis. The resulting satellite magnetic data‐supplemented compilation, ADMAP‐2s, yields further constraints on the enigmatic geology of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, Prince Charles Mountains, Wilkes Land, Dronning Maud Land, and other poorly explored Antarctic areas. It offers insights on the global tectonic processes and crustal properties of the Antarctic and helps to unify disparate geologic and geophysical studies by linking widely separated outcrops. It also supports studies on the geological controls of the Antarctic ice sheet, the crustal transitions between Antarctica and the adjacent oceans, and the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwana and Rodinia supercontinents.