Preface to Tectonophysics, 347, 1-3 (2002)

Abstract

Antarctica is the most poorly understood region of our planet. It, however, maintains an important geologic record of the Gondwana and Rodinia evolution and therefore is a center of extensive scientific inquiry. Magnetic data provide a critical window for geological studies due to the nearly ubiquitous snow and ice cover of this forbidding region. Consequently, numerous magnetic surveys have been carried out for site-specific geologic objectives since the International Geophysical Year 1957/1958. Plans for an international project to process and combine these disparate data sets into a single magnetic anomaly map were formulated at the 1993 meeting of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both IAGA and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) passed resolutions of encouragement (Johnson et al., 1996; Chiappini et al., 1999). At a 1995 workshop at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, it became clear that these individual magnetic surveys could indeed be combined into a regional synthesis to further enhance their utility for geological studies (Johnson et al., 1996, 1997; Chiappini et al., 1998, 1999). Accordingly, the Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project (ADMAP) was launched at this first workshop (ADMAP I) to compile and integrate into a digital database existing near-surface and satellite magnetic anomaly data of Antarctica and the surrounding oceans south of 60jS. An international working group of 32 scientists from eight countries that operate magnetic programs in the Antarctic was established. The working group adopted protocols for making existing and future magnetic data sets available to this international effort. In particular, existing Antarctic magnetic data holdings will be deposited in the world data centers by the end of this first phase of the project in 2002.