Collaborative Research: Geologic, Tectonic, and Geodynamic Processes of the Eastern North American (ENAM) Passive Margin Workshop

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Earthscope and GeoPRISMS represents research communities of geologists, geophysicists, and geodynamicists who study the processes that build continents, open ocean basins, erode, transport and deposit sediment, and the associated natural hazards of earthquakes, tsunamis, sea level rise, and landslides both on land and under water. Earthscope science is done primarily, but not exclusively on land and involves a large transportable array of seismometers that are able to look down into the crust and mantle in assembling an image of the geologic foundation of the United States. GeoPRISMS research is done primarily, but not exclusively in the ocean, specifically in the coastal regions surrounding the country. It includes facilities and instruments able to image and sample the sedimentary packages preserved beneath coastal waters. Collectively, Earthscope and GeoPRISMS research spans the coastline and in doing so, provides an integrated framework for understanding not only natural hazards, but also the nation's natural resources including traditional and alternative sources of energy. Our project is to convene two workshops open to the broader Earthscope and GeoPRISMS research communities interested in the processes of lithospheric formation, rift initiation, passive margin evolution, and interactions with dynamic mantle and surface processes for the east coast of the United States. The eastern United States encompasses the Appalachian Mountains and the archetype Atlantic passive margin and as a result is a source of formative thinking related to continental assembly, mountain building, continental rifting, and post-rift passive margin evolution. Key paradigms such as the Wilson cycle and global sea level change are based on data and research in this geographic area. A small planning workshop is to be held in Austin, TX in concert with the May, 2011 EarthScope meeting. The science workshop is to be held at Lehigh University in the Fall, 2011. Our goal is to focus community effort on cross-discipline learning and approaches, targeting a national and international forum of scientists from universities, national labs, federal, and state agencies including early-career scientists and graduate students. The transportable array of EarthScope arrives in the eastern United States in 2012-13 and GeoPRISMS has identified the same region as a key place to understand the processes of continental rift-initiation and evolution. Therefore, the timing is now perfect to organize both communities and identify the crucial science targets. We envision the workshops to serve as a forum for self-organization in the subsequent science proposal submission process.