Scientists Identify Fan-Shaped Basin Province Beneath 3 Kilometers of East Antarctic Ice
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 3
Scientists Identify Fan-Shaped Basin Province Beneath 3 Kilometers of East Antarctic Ice
3 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 3
Summary
A June 2026 Nature Geoscience study says several major East Antarctic subglacial basins form one fan-shaped tectonic province radiating from a focal region near the South Pole, rather than isolated buried depressions.
Researchers inferred the structure from sub-ice topography, gravity, magnetic and seismic data, linking the Wilkes and Aurora basins and the basin containing Lake Vostok into a single system shaped by distributed rotational extension.
The team argues that deformation predates Gondwana's breakup and may have created a lithospheric weakness that later helped guide Antarctica's separation from Australia and influenced continental margins.
That model also ties the hidden province to uplift of the Gamburtsev Mountains, about 20 degrees of clockwise rotation in part of the Transantarctic Mountains, and bedrock controls on glacier flow and ice-sheet behavior.
The authors stress the province remains a testable hypothesis because key evidence lies under more than 3 kilometers of ice and the timing of deformation is still uncertain.
What other continent-sized geological secrets are still hiding beneath the world's massive ice sheets?
How does a 100-million-year-old scar under Antarctica's ice alter our predictions for future sea-level rise?
The East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province: How a Giant Subglacial System Redefines Antarctic Tectonics and Climate Risk
Overview
In June 2026, scientists identified and named the East Antarctic Fan-Shaped Basin Province (EAFBP), marking a major step in understanding Antarctica’s hidden landscapes. The EAFBP stands out as a single, coherent region with a unique fan-like topography converging near the South Pole. Its formation is linked to complex geological processes, especially large-scale rotational extensional tectonics that are tied to the ancient breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. This discovery not only reveals how these deep Earth processes shaped the region but also advances our knowledge of the vast subglacial features beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.