U.S.-Egypt Cooperative Research: Late Cretaceous Paleoecology of Egypt

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9811030KellerDescription: This award is for support of a cooperative project by Professor Gerta Keller of the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey and Professors Hassan El-Amin Mohamed and Abdel-Aziz A. Tantawy of the Geology Department at South valley University in Aswan, Egypt. The two sides plan to study the rocks originally deposited in the Cretaceous Tethyan seaway and later exposed throughout Egypt. The study can provide insight into the paleoecology, climate and sea level fluctuations, the biotic changes and attendant mineral and organic-rich deposits. The main objective is to investigate these aspects of the late Cretaceous paleoenvironment based on an integrated multi-disciplinary study that includes a wide array of modern methods from paleontology, geology, mineralogy and geochemistry. The results are expected to yield critical insights into late Cretaceous climate changes, sea level fluctuations and the progressive terminal decrease in biotic diversity that ultimately led to the mass extinction of the Cretaceous fauna 65 million years ago.Scope: This award will allow collaboration between an eminent US geologist with extensive research experience in the study of the Cretaceous period in North Africa and an active group at a new Egyptian University. The Egyptian team has experience in studies in this field in Egypt in collaboration with geologists from Germany and Switzerland, and would be able to contribute significantly to this effort. This proposal meets the INT objective of increasing US-foreign collaboration in areas that benefit both sides. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.