PIRE: AfricaArray: Imaging the African Superplume, building African partnerships, and enhancing diversity in the geosciences

这个国际研究和教育伙伴关系奖解决了一个一级地球科学问题，如果没有美国和非洲科学家及其各自机构之间强有力的智力合作和伙伴关系，这个问题就无法得到回答：“非洲超级羽流的结构和起源是什么？”非洲超级地幔柱是非洲下地幔中一大片地震波速度较低的区域，长期以来一直被认为是地幔中最突出的上升流之一，它可能是解开地幔对流动力学的关键。美国科学家将与非洲（博茨瓦纳、埃塞俄比亚、肯尼亚、纳米比亚、南非、坦桑尼亚、乌干达、赞比亚和津巴布韦）的科学家合作，作为一项名为“非洲阵列”的广泛倡议的一部分。利用在东非进行的为期4年的被动地震实验中收集的数据，对非洲超级地幔柱进行成像，该实验将对中地幔的一个关键区域进行采样，在该区域中，东非的异常上地幔与中非和南部的异常下地幔之间可能存在联系。在上地幔和下地幔结构之间建立一个明确的联系，将通过指向靠近核心-地幔边界的浮力源（热的和/或化学的），对超级羽流的起源进行一级约束。该项目的主要合作伙伴是宾夕法尼亚州立大学、北卡罗来纳州农工大学和南非的威特沃特斯兰德大学。围绕核心研究项目的是一项多方面的教育和推广工作，旨在通过推广一种新的模式，促进美国机构如何有效地开展真正具有协作性和可持续性的国际教育和研究项目，并促进多样化劳动力的发展，从而促进美国机构的文化变革。应用于本项目的模型的基本要素是：1)为美国少数民族服务机构和非洲的本科生开发与研究相关的电子教育和实地课程；2)让本科生参与国际实地工作；3)要求研究生a)选修一门外语；b)在非洲的一所大学学习一个学期；c)为本科生开发涵盖一系列地球物理学入门主题的教程。4)教师访问非洲，与非洲大学的同事合作；5)每周的美国-非洲网络会议研讨会；6)建立公私资助伙伴关系，包括美国、欧洲和非洲的学术机构和政府机构，以及跨国矿业和石油公司。该奖项由人力资源开发司和地球科学司共同资助。

0530062 NybladeThis Partnership for International Research and Education award addresses a first-order Earth Science question that cannot be answered without strong intellectual collaboration and partnerships between scientists in the U.S. and Africa and their respective institutions: "What is the structure and origin of the African Superplume?" The African Superplume is a large region of low seismic wave speeds in the lower mantle under Africa that has long been recognized as one of the most prominent upwellings in the mantle, and that possibly holds the key to unraveling the dynamics of mantle convection. U.S. scientists will partner with scientists in Africa (in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), as part of a broad initiative called AfricaArray, to image the African Superplume using data gathered during a 4-year passive seismic experiment in eastern Africa that will sample a critical region in the mid-mantle where there could be a connection between anomalous upper mantle under eastern Africa and anomalous lower mantle beneath central and southern Africa. Establishing an unambiguous connection between upper and lower mantle structure will place a first-order constraint on the origin of the Superplume by pointing to a buoyancy source (thermal and/or chemical) near the core-mantle boundary. The primary partners in this project are Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina A & T University, and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.Built around the core research program is a multi-faceted educational and outreach effort that strives to catalyze a cultural change in U.S. institutions by promoting a new model for how U.S. institutions can effectively run international education and research projects that are truly collaborative and sustainable, and that also contribute to the development of a diverse workforce. The basic elements of the model, as applied to this project are 1) developing e-education and field courses linked to the research for undergraduates at U.S. minority-serving institutions and in Africa, 2) involving undergraduates in international field work, 3) requiring graduate students to a) take a foreign language, b) spend one semester at a university in Africa, and c) develop tutorials covering a range of introductory geophysics topics for undergraduates, 4) faculty visits to Africa for collaboration with their colleagues at African universities, 5) weekly U.S.-Africa web-conference seminars, and 6) setting up a public-private funding partnership that includes academic and government agencies in the U.S., Europe, and Africa, and multinational mining and petroleum companies. This award is co-funded by the Division of Human Resource Development and the Division of Earth Sciences.