What Determines Whether the Deep Continental Crust Flows?

了解深层大陆地壳在高温高压下流动的原因和方式是了解广泛地质过程的核心。然而，关于如何量化许多因素的影响存在不确定性-包括岩石成分、温度、粒度、应变、流体活动和/或熔融程度。这项研究使用了矿物钛铁矿、金红石和锆石的年龄和成分，以测试哪些因素允许或抑制了挪威一个众所周知的地区在高压和高温下的大陆地壳流动。这项研究的影响应该是相当大的和广泛的，因为原型性质的挪威语。虽然这项提议的目的是为了理解为什么深层大陆地壳流动，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。这些问题的答案是为什么地球？地球的构造板块移动，为什么会发生地震，山脉有多长，以及地壳的组成。该项目为美国学生提供培训和研究，并汇集了来自美国的科学家和学生，挪威和法国，提供跨文化的经验，确保该项目的合作影响将是持久的。该项目的实验室方法相对较新，其持续发展将使其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.