Expedition GEA V (2016/17)
Report of the project:
As part of the GEA research project, an aerogeophysical survey was conducted with the research aircraft "Polar-6" in cooperation with the AWI. From November until the end of December 2016, areas in central Dronning Maud Land were surveyed during the GEA V campaign by using a variety of techniques (such as magnetics, gravity, and ice thickness radar).
Working area GEA V
Source: BGR
The installation of measuring instruments as well as the first test and compensation flights were carried out in the vicinity of the Russian station Novolazarevskaya. The Kohnen Station of AWI, which is located on the polar plateau south of Neumayer III station, served as the main base for the measurement campaign and the crew.
Research aircraft Polar-6
Source: BGR
The main target of the survey was to densify the already existing aerogeophysical data set over the prominent "Forster Magnetic Anomaly" to a line spacing of 5 km. This important magnetic anomaly may possibly represent a remnant of the late Proterozoic-Paleozoic Mozambique Ocean, which was closed during the assembly of Gondwana around ca. 650-500 million years ago. It could thus represent the or one of the suture zones, where different crustal fragments collided with each other to eventually form the East African-Antarctic Orogen. The new, high-resolution data have helped not only to better trace and understand the nature of this magnetic structure, which is completely hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, but also to compare crustal regions on both sides of this anomaly with adjacent regions within Dronning Maud Land.
The combined geophysical and geological results of the GEA research programme have led to a more detailed picture of the crustal structure of East Antarctica and thereby fundamental revisions of existing models of its geodynamic evolution. Furthermore, the results have contributed to a better understanding of the development of the Antarctic landscape and sub-ice morphology and glacial evolution of the continent.