IRFP: Stress levels on the Alpine Fault, New Zealand from two perspectives

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持史蒂芬·基德博士与新西兰奥塔哥大学的戴夫·普莱尔博士合作进行为期24个月的研究。基德博士将使用两种技术来估计新西兰阿尔卑斯断层的应力水平，一种产生大地震的板块边界构造索。首先，将使用运动学-热模型的反演来进行应力估计，以便定义与温度-时间约束相容的应力范围。其次，将使用石英中的再结晶粒度测压计测量的应力与模型结果进行比较，以首次测试独立于实验室推导的外推的地质条件下这种类型的测压法的准确性。该项目涉及地球科学的两个重要目标：1）量化与地震和板块运动相关的应力水平的大小，可变性和不确定性，以及2）开发和改进工具。该项目的教育方面涉及帮助教授本科课程，并为本科生和研究生发起和监督研究项目。

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Steven Kidder to work with Dr. Dave Prior at the University of Otago, New Zealand.Dr. Kidder will use two techniques to estimate stress levels on New Zealand's Alpine Fault, a plate boundary structure cable of producing large earthquakes. First, stress estimates will be made using an inversion of a kinematic-thermal model so as to define the range of stresses compatible with temperature-time constraints. Secondly, stresses measured using the recrystallized grain size piezometer in quartz will be compared with the model results to, for the first time, test the accuracy of this type of piezometry under geologic conditions independently of laboratory-derived extrapolations. The project addresses two important objectives in the Earth Sciences: 1) quantifying the magnitudes, variability and uncertainty of stress levels associated with earthquakes and plate motions, and 2) developing and improving tools to do so. Educational aspects of the project involve helping teach an undergraduate course and initiating and supervising research projects for undergraduate and graduate students.