Abstract
The satellite-derived gravity field over the South China Sea is used to obtain a model of crustal thickness variations and of the bathymetry. Constraining data are the crust-mantle interface depth values recovered from seismic studies and the shipborne bathymetry measurements. Essential for the modeling is furthermore the isostatic flexure model, which is numerically evaluated in terms of a convolutional approach, thus overcoming the problems connected to spectral analysis. The flexure model and the gravity model of crustal thickness variations agree very well over all of the basin, except for a near to linear trend present in the gravity data, that could be due to deeper lying sources. The crustal model allows to isolate the gravity contribution of the bathymetry from the total observed field, which can be used to improve the bathymetry. Both gravity anomaly and inverted bathymetry delineate the central basin rift very well, a structure not well recovered from the shiptrack bathymétrie sounding.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Blakely, R. J. (1995). Potential Theory in Gravity and Magnetic Applications, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–441.
Braitenberg, C, F. Pettenati and M. Zadro (1997). Spectral and Classical Methods in the Evaluation of Moho Undulations from Gravity Data: the NE Italian Alps and Isostasy, J Geodyn, 23, pp. 5–22.
Braitenberg, C, and R. Drigo (1997). A Crustal Model from Gravity Inversion in Karakorum, in: Int. Symp. on Current Crustal Movement and Hazard Reduction in East Asia and South-East Asia, Wuhan, November 4-7, 1997, Symposia Proceeding, pp. 325–341.
Braitenberg, C, and M. Zadro (1999). Iterative 3D Gravity Inversion with Integration of Seismologic Data, Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata, 40, pp. 469–476.
Braitenberg, C, J. Ebbing and H. J. Götze (2002). Inverse Modelling of Elastic Thickness by Convolution Method — the Eastern Alps as a Case Example, Earth Planet Sci Lett, 202, pp. 387–404.
Ebbing, J., C. Braitenberg and H. J. Götze (2001). Forward and Inverse Modelling of Gravity Revealing Insight into Crustal Structures of the Eastern Alps, Tectonophysics, 337, pp. 191–208.
Hwang, C, E. C. Kao and B. Parsons (1998). Global Derivation of Marine Gravity Anomalies from Seaset, Geosat, ERS-1 and TOPEX/POSEIDON Altimeter Data, Geophys J Int, 134, pp. 449–459.
Map Series of Geology and Geophysics of China Sea and Adjacent Regions (1992). Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources, P. R. China, Geological Publishing House, P. R. China.
Nissen, S. S., D. E. Hayes, B. Yao, W. Zeng, Y. Chen and X. Nu (1995). Gravity, Heat Flow, and Seismic Constraints on the Processes of Crustal Extension: Northern Margin of the South China Sea, J Geophys Res, 100, pp. 22447–22483.
Sandwell, D. T., and W. H. F. Smith (2001). Bathymétric Estimation, in: Satellite Altimetry and Earth Sciences, Eds. Fu L-L and Cazenave A, Academic Press, pp. 441–457.
Smith, W. H. F., and D. T. Sandwell (1997). Global Sea Floor Topography from Satellite Altimetry and Ship Depth Soundings, Science, 277, pp. 1956–1962.
Wang, Y., H. Xu and J. Zhan (2001). High Resolution Bathymetry of China Seas and Their Surroundings, Chinese Science Bulletin, 46, pp. 1661–1664.
Watts, A. B. (2001) Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphère, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001, pp. 458.
Wessel, P., and W. H. F. Smith (1998). New, Improved Version of the Generic Mapping Tools released, EOS Trans AGU, 79, pp. 579.
Xu, D., X. Liu, X. Zhang, et al (1997). China Offshore Geology, Geological Publishing House Bejing, pp. 247–252.
Zadro, M. (1986). Spectral Images of the Gravitational Field. Manuscript Geodetic, 11, pp. 207–213.
Zadro, M., and C. Braitenberg (1997). Spectral Methods in Gravity Inversion: the Geopotential Field and its Derivatives. Annali di Geofisica XL (5), pp. 1433–1443.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Braitenberg, C., Pagot, E., Wang, Y., Fang, J. (2003). Bathymetry and Crustal Thickness Variations from Gravity Inversion and Flexural Isostasy. In: Hwang, C., Shum, C.K., Li, J. (eds) Satellite Altimetry for Geodesy, Geophysics and Oceanography. International Association of Geodesy Symposia, vol 126. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18861-9_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18861-9_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-62329-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18861-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive