This award supports a Postdoctoral Fellow--Dr. Samantha Hansen--to explore Antarctica's crust and upper mantle using new seismic methods. The project's goal is to understand the tectonic processes that shape the Antarctic continent. Two recently developed methods will be used: (1) joint modeling of S-wave receiver functions and surface wave dispersion to provide improved estimates of crustal thickness, and (2) adaptive gridding tomography using body wave travel times to produce a new upper mantle velocity model for the whole of Antarctica. The broader impacts are increasing the participation of an early career, woman PI and graduate and undergraduate education with outreach to groups underrepresented in the earth sciences. The results have societal relevance by providing new geologic constraints for ice sheet models relevant to understanding sea level rise in warming world.
