Basin and Range Geoscientific Experiment

该奖项支持对地球大陆岩石圈进行综合的、多学科的调查，在那里，高度伸展的地壳和构造稳定的地块之间存在突然的边界。本研究的主要研究目的是利用岩石圈最上部大应变梯度的“自然实验”来了解莫霍面和其他深部不连续面对伸展的响应，从而量化岩石圈的大水平应变与由均衡控制的垂直运动的关系。在盆地和山脉省的地质制图中已经确定了一些这样的地区。其中，科罗拉多高原西缘是最适合实现研究目标的例子。它具有以下优点：(1)突发性；(2)指示简单的前伸展地壳结构的地质背景；(3)众所周知的大规模伸展运动学历史。要实现这些研究目标，既需要专注，也需要广泛的专业知识。主要研究人员将结合地质学、岩石学、古地磁学和地质年代学研究以及连续介质建模，以揭示岩石圈对严重伸展应变的响应的几何、运动学和动力学。

This award provides support for an integrated, multi- disciplinary investigation of the earth's continental lithosphere where an abrupt boundary exist between highly extended crust and a tectonically stable block. The main research objective of this study is to use the "natural experiment" of a large strain gradient in the uppermost part of the lithosphere to understand how the Moho and other deep discontinuities respond to extension, thus quantifying how large horizontal strains of the lithosphere relate to vertical motions controlled by isostasy. A number of such regions have been identified by geological mapping in the Basin and Range province. Of these, the western margin of the Colorado Plateau is the best-suited example for accomplishing the research objectives. It has the virtues of (1) abruptness; (2) a geologic setting that indicates a simple pre-extensional crustal structure; and (3) a well understood large-scale extensional kinematic history. Achieving these research goals will require both focus and broad expertise. The principal investigators will integrate geologic, petrologic, paleomagnetic, and geochronologic studies and continuum modeling to unravel the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of the lithosphere's response to severe extensional strain.