AN-5
Observing Planet Earth and the Space
from Antarctica
Recent developments in the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition
Antarctic Continent
Breakup of the supercontinent seen from the Antarctic
Estimating the motion of surrounding plates from the Antarctic Plate
Geodetic VLBI observation
has been carried out regularly
since 1998. Changes in the
distance from Syowa Station
on the Antarctic Plate to Hart
RAO Station on the African
Plate and Hobart Station
on the Indo-Australian
Plate have been measured
with a precision of several
millimeters. The results
reveal plate motion rates of
12mm/year and 56mm/year,
respectively.
Syowa Station
Changes in distances between observation stations
(changes in baseline length)
Estimating past processes of
continental breakup
Bathymetry
The Antarctic Continent, Africa, South America,
India and Australia were all once part of a
supercontinent known as Gondwana. About 200
million years ago, this supercontinent started
to split up, eventually resulting in the present
alignment of continents. New processes of the
Gondwana continental breakup have been
estimated from seafloor topography, as well
as from analysis of geomagnetic and gravity
anomalies obtained from aircraft and the
research vessel Shirase .
Syowa
Station
Antarctic Continent
Color image of seafloor topography around Syowa
Station obtained from the research vessel Shirase
Social
contribution
Plate motion is considered to be affected by the stress applied to each plate. As a result, it is also
considered to be related to global seismic and volcanic activity over the medium to long term. Detailed
monitoring of plate motion is therefore expected to contribute to disaster prevention measures against
earthquakes and volcanoes. Besides this, it is also used for predicting future climate change associated
with changes in continental alignment.
National Institute of Polar Research
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© National Institute of Polar Research, 2014