Collaborative Research: Reconstructions of the Gulf of California - Salton Trough Plate Boundary Since 14 Ma: A Digital Synthesis of Recent Advances and Outstanding Problems

pi将构建一系列基于数字gis的古构造和古地理地图，追踪加利福尼亚湾-索尔顿海槽板块边界从14 Ma到现在的200万年的发展。一组地图将从6万年到现在——在这段时间里，板块相对运动的速度和板块边界偏移的总量已得到广泛同意。在14 - 6 Ma期间，将开发两组地图，以突出裂谷起始时间、海侵、海湾总偏移和板块边界发育的运动学两种不同的端元模型：(1)修正的应变划分模型，海侵在~8 Ma时进入南部海湾，海侵在~6 Ma时进入北部海湾；(2)早在约12 Ma时就有海洋入侵的非分割的综合区域菌株。使用这种方法，pi将充分探索两个端元模型的众多含义和预测，并提出新的数据，将需要在未来的研究中解决这一重大的未解决的争议。重建将突出最近在理解方面的进展以及未解决的争议。他们希望，地图重建也将挑战研究界，为未来的工作开发严格的可测试的假设，以探索大陆裂谷的潜在过程，海洋盆地的诞生，以及走滑和/或拉伸应变在调节这些过程中的可能作用。加利福尼亚湾-索尔顿海的这种综合是由边际审查小组/计划推荐的。综合的更广泛的影响代表了对更广泛的地球科学界的重要服务。它将加强研究和教育，并将提供给地球和环境科学的教员和一般公众，供他们了解该区域潜在的生态旅游地点。研究生将获得合作科学研究的经验，提高他们的地理信息系统技能，并增加他们对焦点地点的总体知识。

The PIs will construct a series of digital GIS-based paleotectonic and paleogeographic maps that will track development of the Gulf of California - Salton Trough plate boundary in 2-million-year increments from 14 Ma to the present. One set of maps will be made for the period from 6 Ma to the present - a time for which the rate of relative plate motion and the total amount of plate-boundary offset are widely agreed upon. Two sets of maps will be developed for the period from 14 to 6 Ma to highlight two contrasting end-member models for the timing of rift initiation, marine incursion, total offset across the Gulf, and kinematics of plate boundary development: (1) modified strain-partitioning model, with marine incursion into the southern Gulf at ~8 Ma and into the northern Gulf at ~6 Ma; and (2) non-partitioned, integrated regional strain with marine incursion as early as ca. 12 Ma. Using this approach, the PIs will fully explore the numerous implications and predictions of the two end-member models and suggest new data that will be needed to address this major unresolved controversy in future studies. The reconstructions will highlight both recent advances in understanding as well as unresolved controversies. They hope that the map reconstructions will also challenge the research community to develop rigorous testable hypotheses for future work that will explore the underlying processes of continental rifting, birth of an ocean basin, and the possible role of strike-slip and/or transtensional strain in modulating those processes. This kind of synthesis of the Gulf of California-Salton Sea was recommended by the MARGINS review panels/program.Broader impacts of the synthesis represent an important service to a broader Earth science community. It will enhance both research and education and will be available for instructors in Earth and environmental sciences and to the general public for potential ecotourism sites in the region. Graduate students will gain experience with collaborative scientific research, improve their GIS skills, and increase their knowledge of the focus site in general.