CAREER: Tectonically dead but geomorphologically alive: Investigating the role of hard rocks as triggers of widespread, long-term landscape change in continent interiors

职业：构造上已死，但地貌上却还活着：研究硬岩作为大陆内部广泛、长期景观变化的触发因素的作用

• 批准号: 2340311
• 负责人: Pedro Val
• 金额: $ 75.05万
• 依托单位: CUNY Queens College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-01 至 2029-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2340311&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Tectonically; dead; but; geomorphologically

Though seemingly static to humans, watersheds – and the river networks they host – gradually and/or abruptly change configuration, growing, shrinking, and even disappearing over timescales of thousands to millions of years. River network reorganizations have remained enigmatic staples of landscapes in the interiors of continents for over a century. When far from any active geologic faults, little is known about what triggers them, how frequently they initiate, or how fast they evolve. In this project, the principal investigator will evaluate the hypothesis that resistant rocks near the outlets of rivers trigger and regulate the widespread river network reorganization in continent interiors. As human societies depend on water to develop and thrive, constraining the underlying regulators of past, current, and future distributions of rivers is fundamental to understanding the availability and sustainability of water resources on the Earth’s surface and subsurface. Through this project’s discoveries, the principal investigator will create an immersive, collaborative teaching initiative to train a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in topics and techniques of high environmental relevance. The work will foster the integration of scientific knowledge in higher education in the US, Brazil, and in collaborating high schools of the New York Metro area.Despite being in tectonically dead settings, landscapes in continent interiors are rife with evidence of drainage network reorganization and ongoing topographic change. Currently, no unifying mechanism systematically explains the spatial distribution, magnitudes, modes, and timing of drainage divide migration and river capture events in those landscapes. This research project will mechanistically link (i) rates of drainage divide migration and (ii) frequency-magnitudes of river capture events to lithologic changes of up to hundreds of kilometers downstream. The principal investigator’s research group will (i) constrain drainage area exchange rates between large neighboring drainage basins of the tectonically dead eastern Paraná Basin in southeast Brazil using cosmogenic nuclides, (ii) directly link those rates to basin-pair differences in rock properties (i.e. rock erodibilities, tensile, and compressive strengths), and (iii) integrate the empirical evidence with numerical modeling of landscape evolution using the Landlab library. Using this integrated Field + Laboratory + Numerical Modeling triad, the research results will systematically explain rates of drainage reorganization in continent interiors independent of external, hard-to-constrain triggers. Τhe project will also create a seamless doorway between scientific discovery and undergraduate education through accessible, scaffolded training opportunities in Quantitative Geomorphology. The activities will inspire and empower the participating, underrepresented student populations to tackle environmental challenges.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.

尽管对人类似乎是静止的，但分水岭及其主办的河网逐渐和/或突然改变了配置，增长，缩小，甚至在数千至数百万年的时间表中消失。河网络的重组仍然是一个超过一个多世纪的室内装饰的神秘景观。当远离任何活跃的地质断层时，几乎不知道触发它们，发起的频率或演变的速度。在该项目中，首席研究人员将评估以下假设：河流触发器附近的抗岩石在连续内饰中调节河流网络的重组。随着人类社会依靠水的发展和繁荣，限制了过去，当前和未来分布的基本调节者，这对于理解地球表面和地下水资源的可用性和可持续性至关重要。通过该项目的发现，首席研究人员将创建一项沉浸式，合作的教学计划，以培训一群潜水员的本科生和研究生，以高度与环境相关的主题和技术。这项工作将促进美国，巴西和纽约都会区高中高等教育中的科学知识的融合。尽管处于构造性死亡环境中，但连续内部的景观充满了排水网络重组和持续地形变化的证据。当前，没有系统地解释排水隔断迁移和河流捕获事件的空间分布，幅度，模式和时机。该研究项目将机械地联系（i）排水率迁移的速率和（ii）河流捕获事件的频率 - 磁性与下游多达数百公里的岩性变化。首席研究者的研究小组将（i）使用宇宙核素的大型临近死亡的塔克拉纳盆地的大型邻近排水率之间的限制排水面积汇率，（ii）将这些速率与岩石物业的盆地差异直接联系起来（即岩石生物学，杂物，张力，张力），以及（II III II III），以及（III II III），以及（III II II II III II III II III III III）。使用Landlab库的进化。使用这种集成的场 +实验室 +数值建模三合会，研究结果将系统地解释与外部，难以构成的触发器无关的连续内部室内化率。 He项目还将通过可访问的，脚手架的培训机会在定量地貌学方面创建科学发现和本科教育之间的无缝门口。这些活动将激发和赋予参与的，代表性不足的学生人群应对环境挑战的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为是珍贵的支持。