REU Site: Digital Mapping, Geographic Information System (GIS) Database Construction and Geospatial Analysis of Regional Strike-slip Shear Zone Deformation

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This 3-year project works with 9 students per year using the latest digital technologies in a program of precision digital mapping, database construction and analysis of extensive outcrops in coastal Maine. These rock exposures reveal quartz veins and granite intrusions that have been deformed by regional deformation and discrete brittle fault zone configurations that will be used to study Late Paleozoic strike-slip shearing in the Northern Appalachians. Each project year includes an 8-week summer research session of field survey, GIS database construction, structural and spatial analysis and final geologic synthesis. Student researchers will prepare several abstracts and accompanying posters for the Northeast Geological Society of America (NEGSA) meeting to report on the field survey results and interpretations. Project data, field photos and supporting imagery will be used by the students to prepare an oral presentation to their home departments under the supervision of their home institution faculty mentors. Undergraduate students who are finishing their junior year and who are majoring in geology, geography or environmental science are recruited from across the country for this research program with a focus on those students from smaller colleges and universities that offer little opportunity for undergraduate involvement in research. This research program exposes the participating students to the use and limitations of the latest digital mapping technologies and geospatial analysis techniques as applied to a scientific field project. The detailed digital surveying in this project generates new maps of never-before-seen geologic features and relationships that will be used to test, refine and update a tectonic model for Late Paleozoic oblique plate convergence in the development of the Northern Appalachians. The experience fosters a sense of exploration and discovery in research while promoting the use of interdisciplinary skills and peer-to-peer hands-on learning in a life-changing field experience for the participating students. This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.