Post-cruise Report AGSO Survey 217 : Joint Italian/Australian Marine Geoscience Expedition Aboard the R.V. Tangaroa to the George Vth Land Region of East Antarctica during February-March, 2000 : Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions Project no. 1044, Wilkes Land Glacial History (WEGA)

The geophysical data collected includes a total of 1827 km of multi-channel seismic data and 562 km of Chirper sonar data. A total of 11 gravity cores, 28 piston cores, 18 surface grabs and 11 short trigger cores were collected on the voyage. Water profile (CTD) measurements and water samples were collected at nine stations and seabed bottom photographs were made at 11 stations. The expedition discovered and mapped a shelf sediment drift deposit covering about 400 km2 lying in an >800m deep section of the George Vth basin west of the Mertz Glacier. It is a true "drift" deposit, since these sediments exhibit a depositional architecture indicative of contour-parallel sediment transport. A significant observation is that the drift thins to the north into an acoustically-transparent veneer; this observation implies that the drift is sourced from the outer continental shelf, with sediment being transported landwards, across the shelf and into an 850m deep inner shelf basin.本次采集的地球物理数据总计包含1827千米多道地震数据（multi-channel seismic data）与562千米啁啾声呐数据（Chirper sonar data）。本航次共采集11个重力柱样（gravity core）、28个活塞柱样（piston core）、18个表层抓取样（surface grab）及11个短式触发柱样（short trigger core）。研究团队在9个站位开展了温盐深剖面（Conductivity Temperature Depth, CTD）测量与水样采集，并在11个站位获取了海底底质照片。本次考察发现并绘制了一处覆盖约400平方千米的陆架沉积物漂移沉积体，该沉积体坐落于默茨冰川西侧、水深大于800米的乔治五世海盆区域。该沉积体属于典型的“漂移”沉积，其沉积构造特征指示沉积物沿等深线方向搬运。一项重要观测结果显示，该漂移沉积体向北逐渐减薄，过渡为声学透明薄层；这一现象表明该沉积体的物源来自外陆架，沉积物向陆方向跨陆架搬运，最终进入水深850米的内陆架海盆。