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Structure of the Bransfield strait crust

  • Marine Geology
  • Published:
Oceanology Aims and scope

Abstract

Data on the high heat flow, active volcanism, and extensional folding, in combination with modeling of the gravity and magnetic anomalies and earthquake focal mechanisms, indicate that the Bransfield strait floor represents a zone of lithosphere extension forming in the Antarctic Peninsula. The most important structural element of the strait floor is the neovolcanic zone near the South Shetland Islands and the diapirism zone near the Antarctic Peninsula. The discussed stages of rifting of the Bransfield floor reflect the propagating of the American-Antarctic Ridge into the continental lithosphere of the Antarctic Peninsula. The propagating causes thrusting of the South Shetland Island arc onto the peripheral part of the relict Phoenix plate, which is accompanied by the seismicity in the South Shetland trench.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. OOO NIIGazekonomika, Moscow, Russia

    Al. A. Schreider

  2. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Schreider & E. I. Evsenko

  3. Departamento de Geodinamica, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    J. Galindo-Zaldivar

  4. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC/Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

    A. Maldonado, Y. Martos & F. Lobo

  5. Petrobaz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

    L. Gamboa

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Original Russian Text © Al.A. Schreider, A.A. Schreider, J. Galindo-Zaldivar, A. Maldonado, L. Gamboa, Y. Martos, F. Lobo, E.I. Evsenko, 2015, published in Okeanologiya, 2015, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 126–138.

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Schreider, A.A., Schreider, A.A., Galindo-Zaldivar, J. et al. Structure of the Bransfield strait crust. Oceanology 55, 112–123 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437014060101

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