Planning: CDP: The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (LIBRE) Project - Planning Activities to Guarantee Success of a Continental Scientific Drilling Project

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This NSF continental drilling planning grant seeks to establish a temporary seismic array in the vicinity of the Lake Izabal Basin (LIB) in eastern Guatemala to prepare for a deep drilling project in the basin, providing information on faults and seismicity required for drilling safety and to optimize the location of several accompanying shallow boreholes. The LIB contains the longest known continental records of tectonics, climate, and environmental change in the northern neotropics. The LIB developed around 12 million years ago and today holds more than 4 km of sediment, making it an ideal location for an International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) project. Additionally, this award will provide for meeting with local drilling companies to establish the technical and procedural requirements necessary for successful continental scientific drilling operations and enable early engagement with local communities and governmental and educational institutions to ensure smooth drilling planning, permitting, and operations. Drilling and coring in continental settings through continental scientific drilling programs has provided answers to compelling scientific questions that allow us to forecast how global Earth Systems might behave in the future. Long and continuous records from continental regions are rare and several areas of the world remain unexplored. One of these areas is Central America, where geography, topography, geology, and biology have influenced several Earth System processes through geologic time. The LIB, located in eastern Guatemala, is at a nexus location to record all these processes in its sedimentary record. The LIB is a pull-apart basin along the North American (NA) and Caribbean (CA) plate boundary with continuous sediment accumulation since the Miocene (~ 12 Ma), in some places with accumulated sediment thickness of over 4 km. The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor drilling project focuses on: 1) investigating the longest known continental sedimentary record from the northern Neotropics to investigate tropical hydroclimate, biological interchanges, paleoseismic events, and volcanic activity since the Miocene; and 2) establishing a seismic observatory along the NA-CA plate boundary. This NSF planning grant provides the opportunity to obtain necessary key preliminary information to guarantee the success of the drilling project. These include: 1) deployment of a temporary seismic array to help identify active faults in the region; 2) establishment of connections with drilling companies in the country, including discussing technical requirements for soft-sediment coring and safety considerations; 3) early engagement with local communities, organizations, policymakers, and stakeholders to ensure smooth drilling planning, permitting, and operations; and 4) producing educational material and meet with educational organizations to help us plan for the drilling project and spread and multiply our outreach efforts in Guatemala.This 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.