Karen M. Marks

GRAVITY FIELDS OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN FROM GEOSAT DATA

In August 1990, the U.S. Navy declassified all Geodetic Mission (GM) radar altimeter data acquired by the Geosat satellite over oceanic regions south of 60°S. We have used these GM data in conjunction with the unclassified, lower-resolution Geosat Exact Repeat Mission (ERM) altimeter data to construct high-resolution gravity fields on a 5-km grid covering the annular region of the southern ocean, which lies between 60°S and 72°S and encircles Antarctica. During the GM a complete mapping of the marine geoid (between 72° and 72°N) was accomplished. The GM produced more densely spaced ground tracks (typically 2 or 3 km at 60°S) than those of either the ERM or Seasat. Consequently, we were able to use the GM data to map the marine gravity field at a higher resolution than was previously possible using satellite altimeter data. This paper describes the techniques we used to derive these gravity fields and image them. These techniques involve (1) computing along-track sea surface height slopes, (2) gridding of these ascending and descending slopes, (3) converting the slopes to conventional deflections of the vertical, (4) transforming the deflections to gravity anomalies in the frequency domain, and (5) imaging. The resulting images of the marine gravity field reveal much that is new about the seafloor and the tectonic fabric of the southern ocean: a region which includes large expanses of seafloor that have never been surveyed by ships.

Analysis of geoid height versus topography for oceanic plateaus and swells using nonbiased linear regression

We have investigated the relationship between geoid height and topography for 53 oceanic plateaus and swells to determine the mode of compensation. The ratio of geoid height to topography was obtained from the slope of a best line fit by functional analysis (i.e. nonbiased linear regression), a method that minimizes both geoid height and topography residuals. This method is more appropriate than traditional least squares analysis that minimizes only geoid height residuals, because uncertainties are present in both data types. We find that approximately half of the oceanic and continental plateaus analyzed have low ratios that are consistent with Airy-compensated crustal thickening. The remaining plateaus, however, have higher geoid/topography ratios than predicted by the simple Airy model, and the seismically determined Moho depths beneath some of these features are too shallow for crustal thickening alone. A two-layer Airy compensation model, composed of thickened crust underlain by an anomalously low density “mantle root,” is used to explain these observations. The Walvis Ridge, and the Agulhas, Crozet, and north Kerguelen plateaus have geoid/topography ratios and Moho depths that are consistent with the two-layer Airy model. The proximity of the Agulhas Plateau to a RRR triple junction during its early development, and the excessive volcanism at active spreading ridges that created the Crozet and north Kerguelen plateaus and the Walvis Ridge, may have produced regions of enhanced depletion and hence the low-density mantle anomalies. If this explanation is correct, then the low-density mantle anomaly persists over time and remains embedded in the lithosphere beneath the oceanic feature.

Mantle downwelling beneath the Australian-Antarctic discordance zone: evidence from geoid height versus topography

The Australian-Antar ctic discordance zone (AAD) is an anomalously deep and rough segment of the Southeast Indian Ridge between 120 ° and 128°E. A large, negative (deeper than predicted) depth anomaly is centered on the discordance, and a geoid low is evident upon removal of a low-order geoid model and the geoid height-age relation. We investigate two models that may explain these anomalies: a deficiency in ridge-axis magma supply that produces thin oceanic crust (i.e. shallow Airy compensation), and a downwelling and/or cooler mantle beneath the AAD that results in deeper convective-type compensation. To distinguish between these models, we have calculated the ratio of geoid height to topography from the slope of a best line fit by functional analysis (i.e. non-biased linear regression), a method that minimizes both geoid height and topography residuals. Geoid/topography ratios of 2.1 _+ 0.9 m/km for the entire study area (380-60 ° S, 105°-140 ° E), 2.3 _+ 1.8 m/km for a subset comprising crust _< 25 Ma, and 2.7 _+ 2.0 m/km for a smaller area centered on the AAD were obtained. These ratios are significantly larger than predicted for thin oceanic crust (0.4 m/km), and 2.7 m/kin is consistent with downwelling convection beneath young lithosphere. Average compensation depths of 27, 29, and 34 km, respectively, estimated from these ratios suggest a mantle structure that deepens towards the AAD. The deepest compensation (34 km) of the AAD is below the average depth of the base of the young lithosphere (- 30 kin), and a downwelling of asthenospheric material is implied. The observed geoid height-age slope over the discordance is unusually gradual at -0.133 m/m.y. We calculate that an upper mantle 170 °C cooler and 0.02 g/cm 3 denser than normal can explain the shallow slope. Unusually fast shear velocities in the upper 200 km of mantle beneath the discordance, and major-element geochemical trends consistent with small amounts of melting at shallow depths, provide strong evidence for cooler temperatures beneath the AAD.

Variations in ridge morphology and depth‐age relationships on the Pacific‐Antarctic Ridge

Adjacent segments of the Pacific-Antarctic ridge display significantly different morphologies and depth-age relationships over seafloor younger than 36 Ma. The spreading corridor southwest of Fracture Zone XII is characterized by a rift valley and an usually small subsidence constant of 226±13 m/m.y.^(½), while the two spreading corridors immediately northeast of Fracture Zone XII have an axial high and a subsidence constant consistent with the global average. This abrupt variation in ridge morphology is not usually characteristic of medium-rate spreading centers, nor is such an abrupt variation expected of adjacent ridge segments that are spreading at the same rate. We suggest that a thermal anomaly beneath the ridge may influence the first-order effects of spreading rate and lithospheric cooling enough to produce the observed rift valley and axial high and the different subsidence constants. Although we are not certain what would produce the thermal anomaly here, we speculate that when the spreading rate on the Pacific-Antarctic ridge increased from slow to intermediate rates since 20 Ma, so did the need for materials for accretion, which may be supplied in part by along-axis asthenospheric flow from hotspots or a hot region to the northeast. A sufficient supply of hot asthenosphere may still be lacking in the ridge segment with the axial valley to the southwest, leaving it cooler and starved for accretionary materials.

Evolution of the Australian-Antarctic discordance since Miocene time

In this study we chronicle the development of the Australian-Antarctic discordance (AAD), the crenelated portion of the Southeast Indian Ridge between ∼120° and 128°E, since anomaly 6y time (19 Ma). We reconstruct satellite-derived marine gravity fields and depth anomalies at selected times by first removing anomalies overlying seafloor younger than the selected age, and then rotating the remaining anomalies through improved finite rotations based on a very detailed set of magnetic anomaly identifications. Our gravity field reconstructions reveal that the overall length of the Australian-Antarctic plate boundary within the AAD has been increasing since 19 Ma. Concomitantly, the number of propagating rifts and fracture zones in the vicinity of the discordance has increased dramatically in recent times, effectively dividing it into its present-day configuration of five distinct spreading corridors (B1-B5) that are offset alternately to the north and south and exhibit varying degrees of asymmetric spreading. Our bathymetric reconstructions show that the regional, arcuate-shaped, negative depth anomaly (deeper than predicted by normal lithospheric cooling models) presently centered on the discordance began migrating westward before anomaly 5ad time (∼14.4 Ma), and that a localized depth anomaly low, which at time 5ad lay on the ridge axis in spreading corridor B5, has been split apart by subsequent seafloor spreading. The magnetic anomaly patterns suggest that the depth anomaly is not always associated with a particularly contorted plate boundary geometry. Although the plate boundary within the AAD has been getting progressively more crenelated with time, this effect shows little to no migration along the ridge axis since 19 Ma. Thus any geodynamic models of the evolution of the discordance must account for the following observations: (1) the crenelation of the plate boundary within the AAD has increased with time, (2) the center of the crenelated zone does not appear to have migrated along the ridge crest, and (3) both the depth anomaly and the isotopic boundary between Pacific and Indian mantle have been migrating westward along the ridge axis but at apparently different rates. We suggest that both along-axis migration of the depth anomaly and isotopic boundary, as well as temporal variation in the upwelling mantle material beneath the AAD, and local tectonic effects are required in order to explain these observations.