US-Turkey Cooperative Research: Present-Day Kinematics and Dynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean/Caucasus: Interaction of the Arabian, African, and Eurasian Plates

该奖项旨在支持麻省理工学院地球、大气和行星科学系地球资源实验室首席研究科学家Robert Reilinger博士和来自中东和高加索地区的几位科学家的合作。主要合作者是土耳其伊斯坦布尔技术大学地质学教授Aykut A. Barka博士。其他合作者包括埃及赫尔万国家天文与地球物理研究所副教授Salah Mahmoud博士、俄罗斯莫斯科地球联合物理研究所Mikhail Prilepin教授和格鲁吉亚第比利斯大地测量与制图系Merab Nadariya博士。这项研究是在PI和他的麻省理工学院团队使用全球定位系统（GPS）获得的结果的基础上进行扩展，以量化阿拉伯、非洲和欧亚板块相互作用区域的板块运动和板块间/板块内变形。该项目为这一复杂区域的运动学提供了新的限制，这反过来又提供了关于海洋和大陆岩石圈的动态过程和流变学的新资料。新的工作是进一步描述驱动板块运动和板块内变形的力量，以及响应这些力量的大陆和海洋岩石圈的流变特征。范围：本项目将支持由美国国家科学基金会地球科学部提供主要支持的重要研究。该奖项将支持上述参与该项目的美国和外国科学家的旅行和生活费用。这些外国科学家参加实地研究和在麻省理工学院的会议，预期将导致实地工作和对所获得的结果的解释以及将要得出的结论的改进。由于协同效应，研究团队的跨国和区域性质是显著的。该项目非常符合国际项目司鼓励在重大科学问题研究上进行互利合作的目标。

9909619ReilingerDescription: This award is to support the collaboration of Dr. Robert Reilinger, Principal Research Scientist, Earth Resources Laboratory, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and several scientists from the Middle East and the Caucasus regions. The primary collaborator is Dr. Aykut A. Barka, Professor of Geology at Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Other collaborators include Dr. Salah Mahmoud, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan, Egypt, Professor Mikhail Prilepin, United Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, Russia, and Dr. Merab Nadariya, Department of Geodesy and Cartography of Georgia, Tibilisi, Georgia. The research is to expand on results obtained by the PI and his MIT team using Global Positioning System (GPS) to quantify plate motions and inter/intra-plate deformation in the zone of the interaction of the Arabian, African, and Eurasian plates. The project has provided new constraints on the kinematics of this complex region, which in turn are providing new information on dynamic processes and the rheology of the oceanic and continental lithosphere. The new work is to further the delineation of the forces driving plate motions and intraplate deformation, and the rheological character of the continental and oceanic lithosphere responding to these forces.Scope: This project will support important research for which the primary support is provided by NSF's Division of Earth Sciences. This award will support the travel and living expenses of the US and the foreign scientists identified above who are involved in this project. The participation of these foreign scientists in field research and in meetings at MIT is expected to lead to improvement in the fieldwork and in the interpretation of the results obtained and in the conclusions to be reached. The multinational and regional nature of the research team is significant because of the synergetic effect. The project fits well with the objective of the Division of International Programs for encouraging mutually beneficial collaboration on research of important scientific problems.