This award supports the integration of airborne gravity with the combined airborne radar and aeromagnetic Corridor Aerogeophysics of the Southeastern Ross Transect Zone (CASERTZ) program which will be conducted by the Byrd Polar Research Center and the USGS. This program will survey two 220 x 330 km regions between the Transantarctic Mountains and Marie Byrd Land during the 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 field seasons. The survey will consist of a 5 x 5 km track spacing and is designed to determine the motion, volcanism and deformation history of the Ellsworth-Whitmore crustal block of West Antarctica and the relationship of the tectonics of this block to the evolution of the Byrd Subglacial Basin, the Interior Ross Embayment and the Transantarctic Mountains. The airborne gravimetry will improve the capability of the CASERTZ program to define crustal structure and add a new capability to model crustal thickness.
