Origin and Evolution of the Amerasia Basin of the Arctic

北极阿美拉西亚盆地的起源与演化

• 批准号: 0948673
• 负责人: Elizabeth Miller
• 金额: $ 27.9万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0948673&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Origin; Evolution; Amerasia; Basin; Arctic

The geologic history of the remote, ice covered Arctic is still just beginning to be understood. The deep Amerasia ocean basin has never been scientifically drilled and represents one of the few remaining plate tectonic puzzles on earth. Scientists disagree, for instance, on whether Alaska lay next to Canada or Russia before sea floor spreading opened the Amerasia Basin. These basic geologic questions are important because sea floor spreading was also responsible for the development of the vast system of wide continental shelves that border the Arctic, now considered frontier regions for natural resource exploration. Interest in the Arctic has also accelerated because of the profound effect of global warming and because the nations that encircle the Arctic are charting their continental shelves and slopes to propose extensions to their offshore economic zones (EEZs) per U.N. Convention for Law of the Sea, Arcticle 76. This project will provide funding for students and scientists to gather new data to help us understand the plate tectonic evolution of the Amerasia Basin by thoroughly characterizing rock samples collected by dredging submarine cliffs with the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy as part of the U.S./Canada EEZ study. The project will also initiate an international collaborative study with Russian scientists to test hypothetical matches between the geology of the Polar Ural region to that of Alaska.Testing ideas and establishing geologic ties within and across the Arctic Ocean basins will utilize traditional stratigraphic, paleontological, geologic and geochronologic approaches augmented by the study of the U-Pb age distributions and the geochemical/physical characteristics of detrital zircon and apatite suites in sandstones. Mostly derived from the erosion of granitic rocks, detrital zircon and apatite suites provide unprecedented ability to link sediments to their source regions and to understand their subsequent burial/thermal history. Our evolving database for sandstones from the NE Russian Arctic and Alaska, coupled with data from other scientists from Canada and Alaska will provide the context for interpreting the origin of continental rocks dredged from the bottom of the Amerasia Basin in 2008 and 2009 (with more sampling planned for 2010 and 2011) and will serve as a comparison data set for samples from the Polar Ural region of Russia.

人们对遥远的冰雪覆盖的北极的地质历史仍刚刚开始了解。深美亚海洋盆地从来没有科学钻探，代表了地球上少数剩余的板块构造难题之一。 例如，科学家们对阿拉斯加在海底扩张打开美亚盆地之前是否与加拿大或俄罗斯相邻存在分歧。 这些基本的地质问题很重要，因为海底扩张也是形成与北极接壤的广阔大陆架系统的原因，北极现在被认为是自然资源勘探的前沿地区。 对北极的兴趣也因为全球变暖的深远影响而加速，因为环绕北极的国家正在绘制其大陆架和斜坡，以根据联合国海洋法公约第76条提出其近海经济区（EEZ）的扩展。 该项目将为学生和科学家提供资金，以收集新的数据，帮助我们了解美亚盆地的板块构造演化，方法是彻底描述通过与美国海岸警卫队破冰船希利一起疏浚海底悬崖收集的岩石样本，作为美国的一部分。加拿大专属经济区研究。 该项目还将启动一项与俄罗斯科学家的国际合作研究，以测试极地乌拉尔地区地质与阿拉斯加地质之间的假设匹配。在北冰洋盆地内和整个北冰洋盆地内测试想法和建立地质联系将利用传统的地层学，古生物学，地质学和年代学方法，辅以U-Pb年龄分布和地球化学/砂岩中碎屑锆石和磷灰石组合的物理特征。 碎屑锆石和磷灰石套主要来自花岗岩的侵蚀，提供了前所未有的能力，将沉积物与其源区联系起来，并了解其随后的埋藏/热历史。 我们不断发展的俄罗斯东北部北极和阿拉斯加砂岩数据库，再加上来自加拿大和阿拉斯加的其他科学家的数据，将为解释2008年和2009年从美亚盆地底部挖掘出的大陆岩石的起源提供背景（计划在2010年和2011年进行更多的采样），并将作为俄罗斯乌拉尔极地地区采样的比较数据集。