Basin and Range Geoscientific Experiment

该奖项为对地球大陆岩石圈的综合、多学科研究提供了支持，在大陆岩石圈中，高度伸展的地壳和构造稳定的块体之间存在一个突变边界。本研究的主要研究目的是利用岩石圈最上部大应变梯度的“自然实验”来了解莫霍等深部不连续对伸展的响应，从而量化岩石圈的大水平应变与均衡控制下的垂直运动的关系。通过在盆地和山脉省的地质测绘，已经确定了一些这样的地区。其中，科罗拉多高原西部边缘是最适合完成研究目标的例子。它有以下优点：(1)唐突；(2)地质背景表明简单的伸展前地壳构造；(3)了解大尺度伸展运动史。实现这些研究目标既需要重点，也需要广泛的专业知识。主要研究人员将整合地质、岩石学、古地磁和地质年代学研究和连续体模型，以揭示岩石圈对严重拉伸应变的响应的几何、运动学和动力学。

This award provides support for an integrated, multi- disciplinary investigation of the earth's continental lithosphere where an abrupt boundary exist between highly extended crust and a tectonically stable block. The main research objective of this study is to use the "natural experiment" of a large strain gradient in the uppermost part of the lithosphere to understand how the Moho and other deep discontinuities respond to extension, thus quantifying how large horizontal strains of the lithosphere relate to vertical motions controlled by isostasy. A number of such regions have been identified by geological mapping in the Basin and Range province. Of these, the western margin of the Colorado Plateau is the best-suited example for accomplishing the research objectives. It has the virtues of (1) abruptness; (2) a geologic setting that indicates a simple pre-extensional crustal structure; and (3) a well understood large-scale extensional kinematic history. Achieving these research goals will require both focus and broad expertise. The principal investigators will integrate geologic, petrologic, paleomagnetic, and geochronologic studies and continuum modeling to unravel the geometry, kinematics and dynamics of the lithosphere's response to severe extensional strain.