Synthesizing emerging results and identifying future research in an early-stage, magma-poor rift: A workshop in the southern East Africa Rift System

综合新兴成果并确定早期贫岩裂谷的未来研究：东非南部裂谷系统研讨会

• 批准号: 2025254
• 负责人: Donna Shillington
• 金额: $ 13.99万
• 依托单位: Northern Arizona University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-10-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2025254&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Synthesizing; emerging; results; identifying; future

The East Africa Rift System (EARS) is one of the best examples in the world of a continent that is actively in the process of stretching and breaking apart; in the past, these geological processes have culminated in the breakup of continents and formation of ocean basins like the Atlantic Ocean. Although continental stretching and breakup has occurred repeatedly over Earth’s history, the early stages in this process remain poorly understood. In addition to being an important scientific topic, continental stretching is also essential to understand for assessing geohazards; rift zones like the East Africa Rift System are seismically and volcanically active. Over the past 10 years, a number of new scientific studies focused on the southern part of the East Africa Rift System have emerged that are providing new and surprising insights into the onset of continental breakup. This award will support a 4-day workshop in the summer of 2021 in Malawi, which is located within the rift valley, to bring together ~50 US and African scientists to share and synthesize the results of these recent studies to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of continental stretching and associated hazards in the southern part of the East Africa Rift system. This workshop will also provide opportunities to strengthen existing relationships and form new collaborations between US and African scientists, training for early career scientists, and public outreach on the rift and its hazards. The EARS exhibits along-strike changes in magmatism, deformation and cumulative stretching, offering the opportunity to examine active rifting processes at different stages of development and study controls on rifting. These attributes made the EARS an excellent locality to address major questions about rifting posed in the NSF GeoPRISMS science plan. The southern section of the EARS constitutes an endmember of this system in two important respects: 1) there is limited volcanism at the surface, providing the opportunity to more fully test models that require magmatism to weaken and thin the lithosphere, and 2) relatively little cumulative stretching has occurred, making it possible to observe controls on rift initiation. In the last ~5 years, a number of US and international studies have yielded interesting and surprising results on the southern EAR. However, because many EARS-related efforts were funded late in the GeoPRISMS program due to the phased funding model and/or leveraged efforts funded by other programs, there has not been an opportunity for the interdisciplinary community to meet and discuss these results in the context of the GeoPRISMS efforts. The 4-day workshop supported by this award will enable US and African scientists to meet in person and share results; in-person meetings are essential to foster communication and develop and maintain strong international collaborations. The workshop will take place in the summer of 2021 in Malawi, which is located within the rift valley, central to the focus area of the workshop. Holding the meeting here will enable participation by more African scientists, facilitate more networking between US and Africa scientists, and allow for education and outreach efforts associated with the workshop. We will carefully select attendees by application in order to ensure that participants represent a cross-section of expertise, career stage and experience working in AfricaThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

东非裂谷系是世界上最好的例子之一，说明大陆正在积极地伸展和分裂;在过去，这些地质过程最终导致大陆分裂和形成大西洋等海洋盆地。虽然大陆拉伸和分裂在地球历史上反复发生，但这一过程的早期阶段仍然知之甚少。除了是一个重要的科学课题外，大陆拉伸对于了解地质灾害评估也至关重要;东非裂谷系等裂谷带地震和火山活动活跃。 在过去10年中，出现了一些新的科学研究，重点是东非裂谷系南部，为大陆分裂的开始提供了新的和令人惊讶的见解。该奖项将支持2021年夏天在马拉维举行的为期4天的研讨会，该研讨会位于东非大裂谷内，汇集了约50名美国和非洲科学家，分享和综合这些最新研究的结果，以更全面地了解东非大裂谷系统南部的大陆拉伸和相关危害。这次研讨会还将提供机会，加强美国和非洲科学家之间的现有关系，形成新的合作，培训早期职业科学家，并就裂谷及其危害进行公众宣传。 EARS展示了岩浆活动、变形和累积拉伸的沿走向变化，提供了在不同发展阶段检查活动裂谷过程和研究裂谷控制的机会。这些属性使EARS成为解决NSF GeoPRISMS科学计划中提出的裂谷问题的绝佳地点。 EARS的南段在两个重要方面构成了该系统的端元：1）地表的火山活动有限，提供了更充分地测试需要岩浆活动来削弱和薄化岩石圈的模型的机会，以及2）相对较少的累积拉伸发生，使得有可能观察到对裂谷形成的控制。在过去的5年里，一些美国和国际研究已经取得了有趣的和令人惊讶的结果，对南太平洋。然而，由于许多EARS相关的工作是在GeoPRISMS计划后期资助的，这是由于分阶段资助模式和/或其他计划资助的杠杆工作，跨学科社区没有机会在GeoPRISMS工作的背景下会面和讨论这些结果。 由该奖项支持的为期4天的研讨会将使美国和非洲科学家能够亲自会面并分享成果;面对面会议对于促进沟通以及发展和保持强有力的国际合作至关重要。 研讨会将于2021年夏天在马拉维举行，马拉维位于裂谷内，是研讨会重点领域的中心。在这里举行会议将使更多的非洲科学家参与，促进美国和非洲科学家之间的更多网络，并允许与研讨会相关的教育和推广工作。我们将通过申请仔细选择与会者，以确保与会者代表在非洲工作的专业知识，职业阶段和经验的横截面这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。