Shallow-source aeromagnetic anomalies observed over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet compared with coincident bed topography from radar ice sounding - new evidence for glacial "removal" of subglacially erupted late Cenozoic rift-related volcanic edifices

Aeromagnetic and radar ice sounding results from the 1991-1997 Central West Antarctica (CWA) acrogeophysical survey over part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and subglacial area of the volcanically active West Antarctic rift system have enabled detailed examination of specific anomaly sources. These anomalies, previously interpreted as caused by late Cenozoic subglacial volcanic centers, are compared to newly available glacial bed-elevation data from the radar ice sounding compilation of the entire area of the aeromagnetic survey to test this hypothesis in detail. We examined about 1000 shallow-source magnetic anomalies for bedrock topographic expression. Using very conservative criteria, we found over 400 specific anomalies which correlate with bed topography directly beneath each anomaly. We interpret these anomalies as indicative of the relative abundance of volcanic anomalies having shallow magnetic sources. Of course, deeper source magnetic anomalies are present, but these have longer wavelengths, lower gradients and mostly lower amplitudes from those caused by the highly magnetic late Cenozoic volcanic centers.