Collaborative Research: Reconstructions of the Gulf of California-Salton Trough Plate Boundary Since 14 Ma: A Digital Synthesis of Recent Advances and Outstanding Problems

PI将构建一系列基于GIS的数字古构造和古地理地图，这些地图将跟踪加州湾-索尔顿海槽板块边界的发展，从14 Ma到现在，以200万年为增量。一套地图将从6 Ma到现在这段时间-一个时间，相对板块运动的速度和板块边界偏移的总量是广泛同意的。 将绘制14至6 Ma期间的两套地图，以强调两种截然不同的端元模型，用于裂谷起始时间、海洋入侵、整个海湾的总偏移以及板块边界发展的运动学：（1）修改的应变分配模型，海洋入侵约8 Ma进入南部海湾，约6 Ma进入北方海湾;（2）早在约2000年就有海洋侵入的非分区、整合的区域性菌株。12马。使用这种方法，PI将充分探索两个端元模型的众多含义和预测，并提出在未来研究中解决这一重大未决争议所需的新数据。重建将突出最近的理解进展以及未解决的争议。他们希望地图重建也将挑战研究界为未来的工作开发严格的可检验的假设，这些工作将探索大陆裂谷的基本过程，海洋盆地的诞生，以及走滑和/或扭张应变在调节这些过程中的可能作用。加利福尼亚湾-索尔顿海的这种综合是由MARGINS审查小组/计划推荐的。综合的更广泛影响代表了对更广泛的地球科学界的重要服务。 它将加强研究和教育，并将提供给地球和环境科学的教员，以及该区域潜在生态旅游景点的一般公众。研究生将获得合作科学研究的经验，提高他们的GIS技能，并增加他们对重点网站的一般知识。

The PIs will construct a series of digital GIS-based paleotectonic and paleogeographic maps that will track development of the Gulf of California - Salton Trough plate boundary in 2-million-year increments from 14 Ma to the present. One set of maps will be made for the period from 6 Ma to the present - a time for which the rate of relative plate motion and the total amount of plate-boundary offset are widely agreed upon. Two sets of maps will be developed for the period from 14 to 6 Ma to highlight two contrasting end-member models for the timing of rift initiation, marine incursion, total offset across the Gulf, and kinematics of plate boundary development: (1) modified strain-partitioning model, with marine incursion into the southern Gulf at ~8 Ma and into the northern Gulf at ~6 Ma; and (2) non-partitioned, integrated regional strain with marine incursion as early as ca. 12 Ma. Using this approach, the PIs will fully explore the numerous implications and predictions of the two end-member models and suggest new data that will be needed to address this major unresolved controversy in future studies. The reconstructions will highlight both recent advances in understanding as well as unresolved controversies. They hope that the map reconstructions will also challenge the research community to develop rigorous testable hypotheses for future work that will explore the underlying processes of continental rifting, birth of an ocean basin, and the possible role of strike-slip and/or transtensional strain in modulating those processes. This kind of synthesis of the Gulf of California-Salton Sea was recommended by the MARGINS review panels/program.Broader impacts of the synthesis represent an important service to a broader Earth science community. It will enhance both research and education and will be available for instructors in Earth and environmental sciences and to the general public for potential ecotourism sites in the region. Graduate students will gain experience with collaborative scientific research, improve their GIS skills, and increase their knowledge of the focus site in general.