Subglacial topography and internal structure of central and western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, determined from airborne radio echo sounding

During five austral summers, from 1994/1995 until 1998/1999, the Alfred Weg ener Institute (AWI) carried out a large airborne radio echo sounding (RES) survey in Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica. These ice thickness measur ements are part of the AWI contribution to the pre-site survey for a deep i ce core drill site in DML within the European Project for Ice Coring in Ant arctica (EPICA). The survey encompasses more than 90,000 km of RES profiles over DML and the adjacent coastal area, covering more than I million km(2) . The lower boundary of the ice sheet could be determined area-wide, Intern al horizons occurring in the upper two-thirds of the ice column can also be traced for several hundred kilometers. This work presents the latest maps of the subglacial topography of the investigated area as well as of an inte rnal horizon. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.