What Determines Whether the Deep Continental Crust Flows?

了解大陆深部地壳在高温和高压下流动的原因和方式，是了解广泛的地质过程的核心。然而，如何量化许多因素的影响--包括岩石成分、温度、颗粒大小、应变、流体活动和/或熔融程度--仍存在不确定性。这项研究使用钛铁矿、金红石和锆石矿物的年龄和组成来测试在挪威一个众所周知的地区，哪些因素允许或阻止大陆地壳在高压和高温下流动。由于挪威地体的原型性质，这项研究的影响应该是相当大和广泛的。虽然这项提议的目标是了解大陆地壳深层流动的原因，但它也将有助于查明为什么地球上的矿物反应有时非常缓慢。这些问题的答案涉及为什么地球？S构造板块移动，为什么地震发生，山脉存在多长，以及地壳的组成。该项目为美国学生提供培训和研究，并将来自美国、挪威和法国的科学家和学生聚集在一起，提供跨文化体验，确保该项目的合作影响将长期存在。该项目的实验室方法相对较新，其继续发展将使其能够进一步扩展到其他领域，如生物学。

Understanding why and how the deep continental crust flows at high temperature and pressure is central to understanding a broad range of geologic processes. There is however, uncertainty about how to quantify the influence of many factors¬-including rock composition, temperature, grain size, strain, fluid activity, and/or degree of melting. This research uses the ages and compositions of the minerals titanite, rutile and zircon to test which factors permitted or inhibited the flow of continental crust at high pressure and temperature in a well-understood part of Norway. The impact of this research should be considerable and broad because of the archetypal nature of the Norwegian terrane. Although this proposal is targeted toward understanding why the deep continental crust flows, it will also help pinpoint why mineral reactions in Earth are sometimes very slow. Answers to these questions address why Earth?s tectonic plates move, why earthquakes occur, how long mountain ranges exist, and the composition of Earth's crust. This project provides training and research for U.S. students and brings together scientists and students from the U.S., Norway, and France, providing cross-cultural experiences that ensure that the collaborative impact of this project will be long lasting. The laboratory approach in this project is relatively new and its continued development will enable further expansion into other fields, such as biology.