Dynamics of ductile crust

我们发现矿产资源的能力是由我们对过去创造这些矿产资源的地质过程的理解指导的，这可以暗示出可以引导我们找到未来资源的地质特征。裸露前的盾牌构成了加拿大非常大的一部分，并拥有该国的许多地雷以及未发现的未来资源。尽管我们的矿产财富依赖于地球上一些最古老的岩石，但我们仍然没有完全了解形成它们的大规模地质过程。两个主要的谜团阻碍了我们对这些早期岩石(和现代岩石)的理解。第一个谜团是构造板块边缘的俯冲是如何开始的。俯冲是板块的一端下沉到相邻板块地壳下方的地幔中，将自己的板块拉到后面穿过地球表面的过程。使用复杂的计算机模拟物理(应力、应变、热流和岩石的热产生软化)，我将调查埋藏在大陆边缘沉积物下的海底较软的水蚀变(蛇纹岩)岩石的延性变形是否会破坏那里的构造板块的力学完整性，允许切断的边缘下沉，引发俯冲。

Our ability find mineral resources is guided by our understanding of past geologic processes that created those mineral resources, which can suggest the geologic signatures that can guide us to future resources. The precambian shield forms a very large part of Canada, and hosts many of the country's mines as well as undiscovered future resources. Despite this reliance on some of the oldest rocks on Earth for our mineral wealth, we still do not fully understand the large scale geologic processes that formed them. Two major enigmas stand between us and understanding these early rocks (and modern ones). The first enigma is how subduction initiates, at a tectonic plate edge. Subduction is the process by which one edge of a plate sinks into the Earth's mantle below the crust of an adjacent plate, pulling its own plate behind itself across the surface of the planet. Using sophisticated computer simulation of the physics (stresses, strains, heat flows, and heat-generated softening of rocks), I will investigate whether the ductile deformation of the softer water-altered (serpentinized) rocks of the ocean floor, buried under sediments at a continental margin, can destroy the mechanical integrity of a tectonic plate there, permitting the severed edge to sink, initiating subduction.