CAREER: Crustal Cracking along Multi-Segment Portions of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and its Relation to Ridge Segmentation

本项目由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）教师早期职业发展（Career）计划资助。它为俄勒冈州立大学的新教员Dawn Wright博士提供了四年的支持，以开发海洋和地质科学方面的新的跨学科课程，以促进科学事业；本科和高中学生，并在海洋地球物理的不同方面开展双管齐下的研究计划。拟议研究的第一部分侧重于研究汤加前弧的地球物理发展，这是一个响应海洋地壳俯冲而形成的区域，其特征是西太平洋汤加海沟以西的火山和深海地壳物质的隆起。这项研究将与俄勒冈州立大学地球科学系主任Sherman Bloomer博士合作进行。怀特博士研究的第二个重点将是研究胡安·德·富卡山脊（Juan de Fuca Ridge）附近的地壳断层和裂缝，这是一个高度活跃的海洋扩张中心，位于北美西部近海，从加利福尼亚北部到加拿大。该项目的这一部分将包括整合几个现有的侧向扫描声纳数据集和沿扩展轴的摄影数据集，以确定响应海洋地壳形成所涉及的应力而形成的裂缝的分布和特征。了解这些裂缝的分布、长度和形状将提高我们对海底扩张机制的理解；对胡安·德·富卡海脊的研究扩展了赖特博士对东太平洋隆起裂缝形成过程的研究，东太平洋隆起是东太平洋南部一个更快的扩张中心。Juan de Fuca Ridge地区是一个地震高度活跃的地区，每年都有许多地震报告。赖特博士将与俄勒冈州纽波特的哈特菲尔德海洋中心的研究人员合作开展这个项目，并将把她对裂缝分布的研究与哈特菲尔德中心正在进行的胡安德富卡地震研究结合起来。Juan de Fuca Ridge构造的研究项目将被整合到研究生和本科教育的新课程中，并将为俄勒冈州立大学的学生提供研究技术的实践介绍。

9521039 Wright This project is supported under the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. It provides support over four years for a new Oregon State University faculty member, Dr. Dawn Wright, to develop new, interdisciplinary courses in the marine and geological sciences, to promote scientific careers to; undergraduate and high school students, and to carry out a two- pronged research program in different aspects of marine geophysics. The first part of the proposed research focusses on a study of the geophysical development of the Tonga forearc, a region formed in response to ocean crust subduction and characterized by uplift of volcanoes and deep ocean crustal material west of the Tonga trench in the western Pacific Ocean. This study will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Sherman Bloomer, Chair of the Oregon State University Department of Geoscience. The second focus of Dr. Wright's research will be the investigation of crustal faulting and fissuring along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a highly active ocean spreading center located offshore western North America from northern California to Canada. This part of the project will include the integration of several existing data sets of side-scan sonar and photographic data along the spreading axis to define the distribution and characteristic of cracks developed in response to the stresses involved in ocean crust formation. Understanding the distribution, length and shape of these cracks will improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in sea floor spreading; study of the Juan de Fuca Ridge expands on Dr. Wright's study of the processes of crack formation on the East Pacific Rise, a faster-rate spreading center further south in the eastern Pacific. The Juan de Fuca Ridge region is a highly active area seismically, with numerous earthquake reported annually. Dr. Wright will be working on this project in collaboration with researcher at the Hatfield Marine Center in Newport, Oregon, and will integrate her study of crack distribution with the ongoing study of earthquakes on the Juan de Fuca carried out at Hatfield Center. The research program on Juan de Fuca Ridge tectonics will be integrated into new courses developed for graduate and undergraduate education, and will allow a hands-on introduction to research techniques to students at Oregon State University.