USAP-DC

Nontechnical description of proposed research: This project will apply cutting-edge seismic imaging methods to existing seismic data to study the three-dimensional structure of the Earth beneath the ice-covered Antarctic continent. The study will improve understanding of Earth structure and hotspots and geologically recent and ancient rift systems. The results will be useful for models of ice movement and bedrock elevation changes due to variation in ice sheet thickness. The results will also help guide future seismic data collection. The researchers will transfer existing software from the high-performance computers at The University of Rhode Island to the Alabama supercomputer facilities. The project will also broaden public understanding of scientific research in Antarctica by engaging with the students and teachers in Socorro County, New Mexico to discuss career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the Earth Sciences, and the importance of computers in scientific research. Project personnel from Alabama will visit Socorro and share research with students at New Mexico Tech and at the Socorro High School. The project will also train undergraduate and graduate students in the expanding field of computational seismology, by applying these approaches to study Antarctic geology. Technical description of proposed research: The project seeks to better resolve the three-dimensional Antarctic mantle structure and viscosity and to identify locations of ancient rifts within the stable East Antarctic lithosphere. To accomplish this, the researchers will utilize full-waveform tomographic inversion techniques that combine long-period ambient noise data with earthquake constraints to more accurately resolve structure than traditional tomographic approaches. The proposed research will be completed using the Alabama supercomputer facilities and the programs and methodology developed at The University of Rhode Island. The new tomographic results will be useful in assessing lithospheric structure beneath Dronning Maud Land as well as the Wilkes and Aurora Subglacial Basins in East Antarctica, where previous rifting episodes and mid-lithospheric discontinuities will be explored. In West Antarctica, the work will elucidate the easternmost extent of the West Antarctic Rift System as well as rifted structure and possible compositional variations within the Weddell Sea. The accuracy of existing Antarctic seismic models will be quantified through model validation approaches. The researchers will highlight regions of Antarctica where tomographic resolution is still lacking and where future deployments would improve resolution.

Person	Role
Emry, Erica	Investigator and contact
Hansen, Samantha	Co-Investigator

Antarctic Earth Sciences	Award # 1643873
Antarctic Earth Sciences	Award # 1643798

USAP-1643873_1

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
IRIS	GEOSCOPE Network	Not Provided	exists
IRIS	IU: Global Seismograph Network	Not Provided	exists
IRIS	XP (2000-2004): A Broadband Seismic Investigation of Deep Continental Structure Across the East-West Antarctic Boundary	Not Provided	exists
IRIS	YT (2007-2023): IPY POLENET-Antarctica: Investigating links between geodynamics and ice sheets	Not Provided	exists
IRIS	ZM (2007-2013): A Broadband Seismic Experiment to Image the Lithosphere beneath the Gamburtsev Mountains, East Antarctica	Not Provided	exists
IRIS	ZJ (2012-2015): Transantarctic Mountains Northern Network	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	Shear Wave Velocity of the Antarctic Upper Mantle from Full Waveform Inversion and Long Period Ambient Seismic Noise	netcdf; png	deprecated
USAP-DC	Shear Wave Velocity of the Antarctic Upper Mantle from Full Waveform Inversion and Long Period Ambient Seismic Noise	Portable Network Graphics; NetCDF	exists

1. Kumar, A., E.L. Emry, and S.E. Hansen, Shear-wave Velocity Structure of the Crust and Upper Mantle beneath East Antarctica from Full-Waveform Ambient Noise Tomography, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research virtual conference, Abstract 698, 2020.
2. Kumar, A., E.L. Emry, and S.E. Hansen, Characterizing Crustal and Upper Mantle Structure in East Antarctica with Full-Waveform Ambient Noise Tomography, American Geophysical Union Fall virtual conference, Abstract G012-0020, 2020.
3. Kumar, A., E.L. Emry, and S.E. Hansen, Crustal and Upper Mantle Structure beneath the Wilkes and Aurora Subglacial Basins, East Antarctica from Full-Waveform Ambient Noise Tomography, American Geophysical Union Fall conference, Abstract C21F-1514, San Francisco, CA, 2019.
4. Emry, E., S. Hansen, A. Kumar, and Y. Shen, Quantitative assessment of Antarctic crustal models using numerical wave simulations, International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Science conference, Abstract A312, Incheon, South Korea, 2019.
5. Horton, A.C., E. Emry, S.E. Hansen, J. van Wijk, J.P. O'Donnell, A. Brisbourne, G.W. Stuart, S. Anandakrishnan, R.C. Aster, A.D. Huerta, A. Nyblade, D. Wiens, J.P. Winberry, and T.J. Wilson, Mantle transition zone beneath West Antarctica: Expanded mapping in previously unstudied region, American Geophysical Fall conference, Abstract DI31C-0025, Washington D.C., 2018.
6. Emry, E.L., A.A. Nyblade, A. Horton, S.E. Hansen, J. Juli\u00e0, R.C. Aster, A.D. Huerta, J.P. Winberry, D.A. Wiens, and T.J. Wilson, Prominent thermal anomalies in the mantle transition zone beneath the Transantarctic Mountains, Geology, 48, 2020. (doi:10.1130/G47346.1)
7. Emry, E. L., Shen, Y., Nyblade, A. A., Flinders, A., & Bao, X. (2019). Upper Mantle Earth Structure in Africa From Full‐Wave Ambient Noise Tomography. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 20(1), 120–147. (doi:10.1029/2018gc007804)
8. E.L. Emry and S.E. Hansen, Patterns of Segmentation in the East Antarctic Lithosphere from Full-waveform Inversion and Long-period Ambient Noise Tomography, American Geophysical Fall conference, Abstract T23A-03, Chicago, 2022.
9. S.E. Hansen and E.L. Emry, East Antarctic tectonic basin structure and its implications for ice-sheet modeling and sea-level projections. Nature Comm. Earth Environ. (doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02140-4)