Seismic reconnaissance survey for the ICDP proposal 'Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, and Paleoecology of Neogene Central America: Bridging Continents and Oceans (NICA-BRIDGE)'

尼加拉瓜湖和马那瓜湖是中美洲最大的两个湖泊，位于尼加拉瓜的中南部。这些湖泊的位置和长期存在（至少上新世可能是晚中新世）使这些湖泊成为国际大陆钻探计划中科学钻探的有希望的目标。因此，在战略湖泊位置的帮助下，具有全球相关性的钻井目标包括：1)恢复和扩展过去的新向性古气候记录；2)调查过去的海洋-湖泊相互作用（与海洋的联系）、最近和未来的海洋-湖泊相互作用（河道建设）；3)长期构造和沉积盆地（湖泊）发育的历史；4)火山弧的演化和邻近火山弧的相关危害。5)破译它们作为一个地方病热点的重要性；6)调查一个重要的古地理事件，伟大的美洲生物交换；7)将地震学、火山学、古气候、古生态学和古环境结合在一个项目中的能力。因此，在2015年1月，一组国际科学家提交了一份ICDP研讨会提案，旨在开发一个以尼加拉瓜湖和马那瓜湖为重点的科学钻探项目。该建议普遍受到欢迎，但注意到严重缺乏地震数据，这使得现场描述不可能。过去只收集了非常稀疏的地震数据，但由于数据采集过程中的技术问题和复杂的沉积条件（如天然气和天然气），未能对更深的地下进行成像。因此，目前阶段未接受讲习班的建议。这一建议的主要目的是收集尼加拉瓜湖的侦察地震数据，以表明利用现代设备并考虑到过去十年在有火山湖沉积物的地点获得的经验，可以收集高质量的地震现场前调查数据。这些数据将用于规划全面的现场前调查。新的数据还将有助于调查尼加拉瓜湖及其周围的盆地历史和地震危险性。

The two largest lakes in Central America, Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua, are situated in the south-central part of Nicaragua. The location and the proposed long existence (at least Pliocene possibly Late Miocene) make these lakes promising targets for scientific drilling within the International Continental Drilling Program. Drilling objectives of global relevance, assisted by the strategic lakes' location, include therefore 1) recovery and extension of a Neotropic paleo-climate record into the past, 2) investigation of marine-lacustrine interactions in the past (connections to the oceans), in the recent and the future (channel construction), 3) the history of long tectonic and sedimentary basin (lake) development, 4) arc evolution and related hazards due to the proximity to the volcanic arc, 5) deciphering their significance as an endemic hot spot over time, 6) investigation of an important paleozogeographic event, the great American biotic interchange, and 7) the ability to combine seismology, volcanology, paleoclimate, paleoecology, and paleoenvironment in one project. Hence, in January 2015, a group of international scientists submitted an ICDP workshop proposal with the aim to develop a scientific drilling project focused on Lakes Nicaragua and Managua. The proposal was generally well received but noted a significant lack of seismic data, which makes site characterization impossible. Only very sparse seismic data have been collected in the past but failed to image the deeper subsurface due to technical problems during data acquisition and complicated depositional conditions (e.g., gas and tephras). Hence, the workshop proposal was not accepted at the current stage. The main aim of this proposal here is to collect reconnaissance seismic data of Lake Nicaragua in order to show that high-quality seismic pre-site survey data can be collected by means of modern equipment and considering the experience gained in the last decade at locations with volcanogenic lake sediments. The data will then be used for planning a full pre-site survey. The new data will also allow to investigate the basin history and seismogenic hazards in and around Lake Nicaragua.