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Science 2 July 1993:
Vol. 261. no. 5117, pp. 45 - 50
DOI: 10.1126/science.261.5117.45
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Articles

Geophysical Investigations of the Tectonic Boundary Between East and West Antarctica

U. S. ten Brink 1, S. Bannister 2, B. C. Beaudoin 3, and T. A. Stern 4

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA 02543
2 Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Wellington, New Zealand
3 Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
4 Research School of Earth Sciences, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand

The Transantarctic Mountains (TAM), which separate the West Antarctic rift system from the stable shield of East Antarctica, are the largest mountains developed adjacent to a rift. The cause of uplift of mountains bordering rifts is poorly understood. One notion based on observations of troughs next to many uplifted blocks is that isostatic rebound produces a coeval uplift and subsidence. The results of an over-snow seismic experiment in Antarctica do not show evidence for a trough next to the TAM but indicate the extension of rifted mantle lithosphere under the TAM. Furthermore, stretching preceded the initiation of uplift, which suggests thermal buoyancy as the cause for uplift.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Isostatic rebound due to glacial erosion within the Transantarctic Mountains.
T.A. Stern, A.K. Baxter, and P.J. Barrett (2005)
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New seismic data from the Ronne Ice Shelf, Antarctica.
E. C. King and A. C. Bell (1996)
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Paleomagnetic Tests of Pacific Plate Reconstructions and Implications for Motion Between Hotspots.
G. D. Acton, G. D. Acton, and R. G. Gordon (1994)
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)