High resolution aeromagnetic line data in the Ross Sea Rift collected for the ANDRILL pre-site survey (2008-09 season)

A high resolution survey was flown opportunistically by BAS at the end of the AGAP aerogeophysical campaign during the 2008-09 Antarctic field season with NSF support from McMurdo. The main purpose was to collect data on the ice shelf for a radar pre-site survey for a major planned international ANDRILL drilling campaign at Coulman High. Due to lack of appropriate funding levels from several countries this ANDRILL drilling project has been postponed (https://www.icdp-online.org/projects/world/antarctica/coulman-high/) but the site remains nevertheless a potentially interesting target for future geoscience studies. The Coulman High project aimed to explore the range of paleo-environments, ecosystems and tectonic events that affected the Ross Sea region as it transitioned from the warm, high-CO2 Greenhouse world typical of the Eocene into the lower-CO2 and highly variable Icehouse conditions of the Oligocene and early Miocene. The aeromagnetic data released here can be used together with more extensive pre-existing international datasets to help study rift-related magmatism, faulting and sedimentary basins in the region.

2008-2009年南极野外季期间，依托AGAP航空地球物理调查项目的收尾契机，英国南极调查局（British Antarctic Survey, BAS）在麦克默多站（McMurdo）美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation, NSF）的资助下，临时开展了本次高分辨率航空测量。本次测量的核心目的是为库尔曼高地（Coulman High）一处重大规划中的国际南极钻探计划（ANDRILL）钻井项目的雷达预选址调查，收集冰架相关数据。由于多个国家未能提供足额资助经费，该ANDRILL钻井项目已被推迟（https://www.icdp-online.org/projects/world/antarctica/coulman-high/），但该站点仍是未来地球科学研究的潜在重要目标。库尔曼高地项目旨在探究影响罗斯海区域的各类古环境、生态系统及构造演化事件——该区域曾从始新世（Eocene）典型的温暖高二氧化碳温室地球环境，逐步过渡至渐新世（Oligocene）与中新世（Miocene）早期的低二氧化碳、气候高度波动的冰室地球环境。本次公开的航空磁测数据，可与现有更丰富的国际数据集结合使用，助力该区域与裂谷作用相关的岩浆活动、断裂构造及沉积盆地研究。