Achievement

Co-PI D. Braaten was involved in an interdisciplinary International Polar Year project to conduct an aerogeophysical survey of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains Province hidden under the E. Antarctic Ice Sheet during Dec 2008 and Jan 2009. The survey was conducted using two instrumented aircraft: provided by the US Antarctic Program and the British Antarctic Survey. Both were equipped with ice penetrating radar, laser altimetry, aerogravity and aeromagnetic sensors. The ice penetrating radar has provided previously unknown ice thickness, ice layering and subglacial topography of the Gamburtsev Province. The aeromagnetic and aerogravity instruments provided new datasets of subglacial geology and the earth’s crustal structure. These data are key to understanding the tectonic origin of the complex topography mapped by the radar. These data may also point to the area where the E. Antarctic Ice Sheet first nucleated, and then grew to cover the continent as Antarctica gradually cooled.