SGER: Tectonic and Environmental Change Near 8 Ma In and Near Tibet: A Proposal for a Reconnaissance Field Trip

几条证据表明，大约800万年前，作用于西藏的地球动力学过程的平衡发生了某种变化，同时环境条件也发生了变化。主要的触发事件是短暂的，还是发生在数百万年后，在某种程度上取决于哪些数据被认为最具启发性。与典型的情况一样，相关数据在某种程度上都存在缺陷或薄弱，但它们具有足够的启发性，值得调查西藏在过去10-20年里是如何增长的，以及这种增长可能会如何影响整洁的环境。该奖项为探索性实地调查提供支持，以确定P.I.如何探索地壳和上地幔内发生的地球动力学过程与西藏及其周围发生的环境变化之间的相互关系，以及可能的全球变化。具体地说，P.I.将能够与他们的中国同事会面，第一手查看将收集数据的领域，并检查和评估与该问题有关的现有中国数据的适宜性。一些更广泛的潜在结果包括了解更大的气候变化，不仅是亚洲季风，还包括导致全球变冷和冰河时代的变化。将参加的美国科学家组成一个小组，其中包括4名具有不同背景的初级科学家，实地考察将为他们提供参与一个可能的大型、国际、多学科项目的机会。

0435795MolnarSeveral lines of evidence point toward some kind of change in the balance of geodynamic processes acting on Tibet and concurrent changes in environmental conditions approximately 8 million years ago. Whether the principal triggering event was brief, or took place over several million years depends somewhat on which data are considered most suggestive. As is typical, the relevant data are all flawed or weak in some way, but they are sufficiently suggestive to merit an investigation into how Tibet has grown in the past 10-20 Myr and how that growth might have affected neaby environments. This award provides support for an exploratory field investigation to determine how the P.I.s might explore the interrelationships between geodynamic processes occurring within the crust and upper mantle and environmental changes that occurred within and surrounding Tibet, as well as possibly global changes. Specifically, the P.I.s would be able to meet with their Chinese colleagues, see first hand the field areas where data would be gathered, and examine and assess the suitability of existing Chinese data bearing on the problem.Some potential outcomes of a broader scope include an understanding of a much larger climate change, not just the Asian monsoon, but also changes that led to global cooling and the Ice Ages. The US scientists that would participate comprise a group that includes 4 junior scientists of diverse backgrounds and the field trip will provide an opportunity for them to become involved with a possible large, international, multidisciplinary project.