GreenCrust: Tracing a Greenland’s crustal structure under the ice with geophysical inversion and an assessment of geothermal heat flow

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Ebbing
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 459524577

We aim at providing a model of the crustal lithology from the joint analysis of the magnetic and gravity data that traces the outcropping geology from the coast into the interior of Greenland revealing the sub-ice geology. Hereby, we use for the first time a recent and most complete aeromagnetic compilation of Greenland and its surroundings to study the magnetic field properties of the crust. The crustal lithology model is based on field interpretation and joint inversion constrained by petrophysical properties. While petrophysical sampling is limited over Greenland, we will compile the existing information, measure samples available to us and supplement the information with data sets from Scandinavia to have a statistical relevant sample number. For the crustal model, the resolution is adaptive to the resolution of the available data sets. For a complete crustal model, we consider as well crustal thickness and upper mantle sources. For this, we will evaluate existing lithospheric-scale models and recent tomography to establish the regional setting. At the end, our resulting models will be used to assess the crustal contribution to geothermal heat flow at the base of the ice-sheets.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Denmark
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Björn Heincke
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Max Moorkamp