ON THE GEOLOGIC STRUCTURE OF THE EXPLORA ESCARPMENT (WEDDELL SEA, ANTARCTICA) REVEALED BY SATELLITE AND SHIPBOARD DATA EVALUATION

Bathymetric, gravity, and magnetic data from Antarctic expeditions wit h RV POLARSTERN and satellite altimeter data from the Geosat Geodetic Mission are analysed using methods from geostatistics and geophysical inverse theory. The Explora Escarpment represents the edge between the Antarctic Continental Shelf and the Weddell Abyssal Plain. It is an i mportant link in the reconstruction of Gondwana breakup, but a feature as large as the 2000 m deep Wegener Canyon was only discovered in 198 4, when extensive bathymetric, gravimetric, and magnetic surveys with RV POLARSTERN began. Geostatistics, the theory of regionalized variabl es, is applied to integrate dense surveys of Wegener Canyon and sparse observations in adjacent areas into maps with full coverage of the 23 0 km by 330 km area at 10-degrees-20-degrees-W/70-degrees-72-degrees-S . The resultant high-resolution bathymetric and gravity maps reveal de tailed structures of the Explora Escarpment. Using geophysical inversi on, the gravity terrain effect is calculated. Satellite data are used for their better coverage, but have much lower resolution. Nevertheles s, the structures of Wegener Canyon and other more Prominent features appear with surprisingly good correlation also in the Geosat altimeter data. While it was initially supposed that Wegener Canyon is purely a n erosional structure, the magnetic map now provides evidence of the ' canyon's' tectonic origin.