2. Proposed Program

The principal objective of this event was to enhance and extend the geophysical image of the sub-surface portion of the Transantarctic Mountain front that was gained from the 1990/91 Seris Expedition on the Ross Ice Shelf.

The 1990/91 seismic work did not locate a graben structure adjacent to the Transantarctic Mountain front, a graben that is believed to have formed as a result of rifting between East and West Antarctica. This expedition extended the Seris traverse a further 100 km north-east onto the Ross Ice Shelf with measurements of gravity, magnetics and ice thickness. With these measurements we will investigate the possibility that the expected graben exists further away from the mountain front.

Additionally we aimed to obtain detailed measurements of ice thickness on the Robb Glacier portion of the 1990/91 expedition for reprocessing of seismic data. This information would then provide a clearer picture of the deep structure of the East/West Antarctica boundary.