2006 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
A Multi-Phase Rifting Model for the Victoria Land Basin, Western Ross Sea
The Victoria Land Basin is a deep rift margin basin that lies along the Ross Sea margin of the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica. Seismic data indicates that the 140 km wide basin contains some 14 km of sediments. Drilling results from the flank of the basin suggests that most of these sediments are late Eocene or younger in age. Four major sequences are defined on the seismic data by angular unconformities indicating several rift episodes. Constraints on the basin formation are derived using flexural cantilever models. The model reproduces the main features (shape, size, timing and broad stratigraphy) of the basin formation moderately well using four rift episodes on five main faults, but does not match the detailed geometry of the seismic stratigraphy.