CAREER: The Detrital Record of Focused Rock Uplift and Exhumation, Northeast Indian Himalaya

这个CAREER项目将研究和教育结合起来，利用基岩冷却时代和东喜马拉雅构造结下游的沉积记录来研究喜马拉雅构造。在印度-亚洲碰撞带的边缘，喜马拉雅地形在印度板块的拐角处弯曲，形成了巨大的弯曲或结构，大约代表了地球上最高的活跃山脉的三分之一。在东部合带，至少在过去的300万年里，岩石挖掘一直非常迅速和局部化，对雅鲁藏布江水系和下游的孟加拉扇的沉积物流量做出了不成比例的贡献。确定快速挖掘是何时开始的，以及它在时间上的集中程度是理解地球变形定位的关键？地壳。然而，基于基岩数据的限制仅限于过去几百万年，并没有延伸到合成带以南，而正是一些结构模型预测快速挖掘的地方。该项目将记录该地区的挖掘模式，将基岩和现代河流沉积物的冷却年代与该地区联系起来。通过研究过去5000万年从山脉中脱落的沉积物，延长了挖掘记录的时间，这些沉积物现在保存在印度东北部的盆地和孟加拉扇。这些结果将为解决两个广泛的地球科学问题迈出根本性的新一步：1)将侵蚀和山带结构演化联系起来的过程在什么时间和空间尺度上起作用？2)沉积物的变化如何反映这些过程？研究和教育将通过探究式教学、高中教师的专业发展以及主要为少数民族服务的学校的外展活动相结合。积极的学习方法和网络资源将吸引大学生参加一系列以教育研究为基础的课程，这些课程挑战参与者提出有关喜马拉雅构造的原创研究建议。针对成绩优异的高中学生已被证明是提高代表性不足的少数民族参与科学的有效手段。为了实施这一策略，首席研究员将指导和培训10名高中教师，为社会经济上处于不利地位的少数民族高中提供地球科学入门课程，以获得大学学分。研究成果将纳入由本科生讲授的高中实验活动，共涉及40名本科生和600名高中生，为期5年。大学课程相互加强研究和教学，培养学生制定和交流有意义的新研究问题。通过永久提高少数族裔学校提供科学课程的水平，该项目将展示K-12和高等教育之间的合作如何激励不同的学生群体，促进大学准备，并鼓励对物理科学的学术兴趣。

This CAREER project integrates research and education to investigate Himalayan tectonics using bedrock cooling ages and the sedimentary record downstream of the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis. At the margins of the India-Asia collision zone, Himalayan topography curves around the corners of the Indian plate defining great bends or syntaxes that represent roughly a third of the highest active mountain range on Earth. At the Eastern Syntaxis, rock exhumation has been extremely rapid and localized for at least the last 3 million years, contributing disproportionately to the sediment flux of the great Brahmaputra river system and Bengal Fan downstream. Determining when rapid exhumation initiated and how focused it has been through time are key to understanding this localization of deformation in Earth?s crust. However, constraints based on bedrock data are limited to the last few million years and do not extend south of the syntaxis, precisely where some structural models predict rapid exhumation. This project will document the regional exhumation pattern, relating cooling ages of bedrock and modern river sediments to the area?s structural evolution, and extend the exhumation record through time by targeting sediments shed from the mountains in the past 50 million years that are now preserved in basins of northeast India and the Bengal Fan. The results will represent a fundamental new step towards addressing two broad Earth Science questions: 1) Over what time and spatial scales do processes linking erosion and the structural evolution of mountain belts operate? and 2) How does variability in sediments reflect these processes?Research and education will be integrated through inquiry-based teaching, professional development for high school teachers, and outreach in primarily minority-serving schools. Active learning methodologies and web resources will engage university students in a series of courses grounded in educational research, which challenge participants to develop original research proposals pertaining to Himalayan tectonics. Targeting high-achieving high school students has been demonstrated as an effective means to improve participation of underrepresented minorities in science. To implement this strategy, the principal investigator will mentor and train 10 high school teachers to offer introductory Earth Science for college credit in socio-economically disadvantaged minority serving high schools. Research findings will be integrated into high school laboratory activities taught by undergraduate students, in total involving 40 undergraduates in outreach and 600 high school students over 5 years. The university courses mutually reinforce research and teaching, training students to formulate and communicate meaningful new research questions. By permanently raising the caliber of science offerings in minority-serving schools, this project will showcase how collaboration between K-12 and higher education can motivate a diverse population of students, promote college readiness, and encourage academic interest in the physical sciences.