Origin and Evolution of the Amerasia Basin of the Arctic

人们对遥远的冰雪覆盖的北极的地质历史的了解才刚刚开始。美亚大陆深海盆地从未经过科学钻探，是地球上仅存的几个板块构造谜题之一。例如，科学家们对于阿拉斯加在海底扩张打开美洲盆地之前是毗邻加拿大还是毗邻俄罗斯的问题上存在分歧。这些基本的地质问题很重要，因为海底扩张也是与北极接壤的广阔大陆架系统的形成的原因，现在北极被认为是自然资源勘探的前沿地区。由于全球变暖的深刻影响，以及环绕北极的国家正在绘制大陆架和斜坡，根据《联合国海洋法公约》第76条，提议延长其近海经济区(EEZ)，人们对北极的兴趣也有所增加。该项目将为学生和科学家提供资金，帮助他们收集新的数据，通过与美国海岸警卫队破冰船Healy一起彻底表征通过疏浚海底悬崖收集的岩石样本，帮助我们了解美洲大陆盆地的板块构造演化，作为美国/加拿大专属经济区研究的一部分。该项目还将与俄罗斯科学家开展一项国际合作研究，以测试极地乌拉尔地区的地质与阿拉斯加地质之间的假设匹配。测试想法并建立北冰洋盆地内和跨北冰洋盆地的地质联系将利用传统的地层学、古生物学、地质学和年代学方法，并通过研究砂岩中碎屑锆石和磷灰石套件的U-Pb年龄分布和地球化学/物理特征来加强。碎屑锆石和磷灰石岩套主要来自于花岗岩的侵蚀，它们提供了前所未有的能力，将沉积物与其源区联系起来，并了解其随后的埋藏/热史。我们不断演变的俄罗斯东北部北极和阿拉斯加砂岩数据库，加上来自加拿大和阿拉斯加的其他科学家的数据，将为解释2008年和2009年从美亚大陆盆地底部挖出的大陆岩石的起源提供背景(2010年和2011年计划进行更多采样)，并将作为俄罗斯极地乌拉尔地区样品的比较数据集。

The geologic history of the remote, ice covered Arctic is still just beginning to be understood. The deep Amerasia ocean basin has never been scientifically drilled and represents one of the few remaining plate tectonic puzzles on earth. Scientists disagree, for instance, on whether Alaska lay next to Canada or Russia before sea floor spreading opened the Amerasia Basin. These basic geologic questions are important because sea floor spreading was also responsible for the development of the vast system of wide continental shelves that border the Arctic, now considered frontier regions for natural resource exploration. Interest in the Arctic has also accelerated because of the profound effect of global warming and because the nations that encircle the Arctic are charting their continental shelves and slopes to propose extensions to their offshore economic zones (EEZs) per U.N. Convention for Law of the Sea, Arcticle 76. This project will provide funding for students and scientists to gather new data to help us understand the plate tectonic evolution of the Amerasia Basin by thoroughly characterizing rock samples collected by dredging submarine cliffs with the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy as part of the U.S./Canada EEZ study. The project will also initiate an international collaborative study with Russian scientists to test hypothetical matches between the geology of the Polar Ural region to that of Alaska.Testing ideas and establishing geologic ties within and across the Arctic Ocean basins will utilize traditional stratigraphic, paleontological, geologic and geochronologic approaches augmented by the study of the U-Pb age distributions and the geochemical/physical characteristics of detrital zircon and apatite suites in sandstones. Mostly derived from the erosion of granitic rocks, detrital zircon and apatite suites provide unprecedented ability to link sediments to their source regions and to understand their subsequent burial/thermal history. Our evolving database for sandstones from the NE Russian Arctic and Alaska, coupled with data from other scientists from Canada and Alaska will provide the context for interpreting the origin of continental rocks dredged from the bottom of the Amerasia Basin in 2008 and 2009 (with more sampling planned for 2010 and 2011) and will serve as a comparison data set for samples from the Polar Ural region of Russia.