Everything about The West Antarctic Rift totally explained
The
West Antarctic Rift is a major, active
rift valley lying between
East and
West Antarctica. It encompasses the
Ross Sea, the area under the
Ross Ice Shelf and a part of West Antarctica. Its evolution is due to lithospheric thinning of the non-
cratonic area of West Antarctica.
Because, apart from peaks of the
Transantarctic Mountains that protrude above the ice, the region is covered by the vast
West Antarctic Ice Sheet, it's very difficult to explore the
geology of the West Antarctic Rift, so that it's less well known than other major rift valleys. It is known, however, that like the
East African Rift, the West Antarctic Rift is actually a number of much shorter rifts that cross Antarctica. There is also a sharp division between older, broader
Paleogene rifts including the Ross Sea Basin and the younger, narrower
Terror Rift. There are also a large number of failed rifts extending as far as
Berkner Island.
Although many rifts within the West Antarctic Rift system are no longer active, it's now known that West Antarctica is moving away from the East Antarctic Craton in a north/northeasterly direction (approximately in the direction of the
South Georgia Islands at a rate of about 2 mm per year or 500,000 years per kilometre.
The West Antarctic Rift is the source of all the recently active volcanoes within Antarctica, and of most of the major Antarctic mountain systems outside the
Antarctic Peninsula. It is also believed to have a major influence on ice flows in West Antarctica, because fast moving ice streams are believed
(External Link
) to be influenced by the lubrication provided by water-saturated
till, which some argue could help cause breakup of the ice sheet if
global warming accelerates.
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