US-India Cooperative Research: A Multibeam Survey of the Equatorial Carlsberg and Central Indian Ridges and Their Fracture Zones, 3N-10S

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0244894DeMetsDescription: This award supports the US-India Cooperative Research: A Multibeam Survey of the Equatorial Carlsberg and Central Indian Ridges and their Fracture Zones, 3N-10S. Drs. D. DeMets, University of Wisconsin, Madison, R. K. Drolia, Indian National Geophysical Research Institute, and R. Mukhopadhyay, Indian National Institute of Oceanography will conduct a 3-year multibeam and kinematic study of the Carlsberg(CR) and Central Indian Ridges(CIR). They will examine multibeam data already collected by the Indian research ship (R/V Sagar Kanya), study new data generated by Indian domestic research cruises, and work on new proposals using the Sagar Kanya to map the CR and CIR. The proposed work is a wide-ranging and long-awaited study that will shed light on the axial and transform morphology of a 2000-km long unmapped section of the mid-ocean ridge system in the Central Indian Ocean. Scope: The proposed research is important for grasping the behavior of plates at the fundamental level and for building a plate kinematic framework that will lead to better understanding of Himalayan geology. Study of the central Indian Ocean is essential for the global characterization of the ridge system and will have favorable impacts on many allied fields. The merging of US and Indian databases will benefit both groups of scientists and eventually lead to future shipboard collaborative programs. The scientists are leaders in the field and this study of the Indian Ocean ridge system will contribute to resolving some major unanswered questions at the forefront of geophysical research. Additionally, this research has implications bearing on climate change and the geodynamics of both oceanic and continental regions. This project is jointly funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Ocean Sciences.