Workshop on Integrated Scientific Coring on the Colorado Plateau: Early Mesozoic History of West Pangea; St. George, Utah; November13-16, 2007

科罗拉多高原是层状沉积岩的典范，代表了西部科迪勒拉在古生代和中生代大部分时间的沉积历史。200多年的研究表明，这一经典剖面的中生代早期部分是西部盘古大陆生物、构造和气候演化的无与伦比的记录。然而，尽管科罗拉多高原有着丰富的科学底蕴和研究的深度和强度，但仍明显缺乏时间和古地理分辨率，这阻碍了与全球记录的整合。我们也正在组织一次国际研讨会，将于2007年11月13-16日在犹他州圣乔治举行，该研讨会将在科罗拉多高原内外制定一个有针对性的取心计划，目标是利用从多个地点获得的岩心，在这一经典地区恢复完整的下中生界剖面。这一由NSF资助的部分是对DOSECC为这次研讨会承诺的资金的补充。这样一个适度的取心项目，集中在科罗拉多高原的这个时间-地层间隔，再加上在高原附近的这个目标间隔的较低部分进行取心，将提供典型的连续参考剖面，将6000多万年的地球历史的区域和全球事件置于精确的年代地层和古地理背景中，这有可能彻底改变对盘古海年代学、古地理、古气候、构造和生物演化的理解。

The Colorado Plateau is THE textbook example of layered sedimentary rocks, representing the depositional history of the western Cordillera during much of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. Over 200 years of research has demonstrated that the Early Mesozoic age portion of this classic section presents an unparalleled record of biotic, tectonic, and climatic evolution of western Pangea. However, despite its rich scientific heritage and depth and intensity of current research, there is a striking lack of temporal and paleogeographic resolution that prevents integration with the global record.We are organizing an international workshop too be held November 13-16, 2007 in St. George Utah, that will formulate a focused coring program in and off the Colorado Plateau with the goal of recovering, using core obtained from multiple localities, the complete Lower Mesozoic section in this classic area. This NSF-funded component compliments funds committed by DOSECC for this workshop. Such a modest coring project, concentrated on this time-stratigraphic interval on the Colorado Plateau, coupled with coring over the lower part this target interval off the Plateau, would provide quintessential continuous reference sections to place the regional and global events of more than 60 million years of Earth History in a precise chronostratigraphic and paleogeographic context that has the potential to revolutionize understanding of Pangean chronology, paleogeography, paleoclimate, tectonic and biotic evolution.