Imaging and characterization of rifted continental margin structures using geophysical methods: seeking deeper constraints and their tectonic implications

加拿大在东海岸和北极的海底边界的特点是大陆边缘断裂，这是现代海洋开放的产物。尽管由于拥有大量的能源储备，它们在领土和经济上具有重要意义，但这些边际在很大程度上仍未得到充分开发，创造它们的过程也没有得到充分了解。裂谷大陆边缘通常被归类为富岩浆/火山边缘或岩浆贫乏/非火山边缘。加拿大东海岸拥有这两种类型的边缘以及它们之间的过渡，为研究裂谷过程及其沿裂谷大陆边缘的变化提供了一个天然的实验室。通过将海洋缝合在一起，研究共轭边缘匹配得有多好，不对称性是如何发展的，以及这些不对称性是否在海洋打开之前很久就存在了，也可以获得伟大的洞察力。这些裂谷过程对随后的沉积物沉积和盆地演化产生了深远的影响，因此，更好地了解它们下方的地壳变异性可以降低勘探风险和成本。*我的研究项目包括研究裂谷大陆边缘及其共轭，以便在全球范围内了解这些边缘是如何发展的，同时提供关于这些裂谷过程如何影响石油系统的见解。短期目标是通过利用在加拿大东部边缘以及共轭边缘正在获得的新的地球物理数据集，更好地约束我们目前的大陆裂谷和过渡地壳的地壳模型。这些努力将涉及：(1)地震处理工作，以提供沿共轭对和跨越共轭对的地壳变化的改进图像；(2)详细的地震解释工作，以将地质边界与其在共轭对内部和之间的地球物理特征联系起来；(3)重力反演工作，以将新发现的地震约束扩大到更深和更广的区域。更长期的目标是继续与业界、政府和国际合作者一起，在关键地区进行原创的地壳规模的地震实验，这些地区仍然存在数据差距，目前的知识状况不能充分解释观测结果。*由于加强勘探对领土和经济的影响，拟议的研究对能源勘探行业和各级政府都很重要。开发的重力反演方法将对加拿大具有特别重要的战略意义，因为它们将提供一种低成本的方法来表征北极的深层结构，联邦政府已将负责任的开发确定为研究重点。最后，将培训10名高素质的地球科学家，以便在加拿大和国际上的学术界、政府和工业界工作。

Canada's submarine limits on the East Coast and in the Arctic are characterized by rifted continental margins, the products of the opening of modern oceans. Despite their territorial and economic importance due to hosting significant energy reserves, these margins remain largely underexplored and the processes that created them are not fully understood. Rifted continental margins are generally classified as magma-rich/volcanic margins or magma-poor/non-volcanic margins. Canada's East Coast hosts both types of margins as well as the transitions between them, providing a natural laboratory for studying rifting processes and how they vary along a rifted continental margin. Great insight can also be obtained by stitching the oceans back together to study how well the conjugate margins match, how asymmetries develop, and whether those asymmetries existed long before the oceans opened. These rifting processes have a profound impact on subsequent sediment deposition and basin evolution, such that developing a better understanding of the crustal variability beneath them can reduce exploration risk and cost. ******My research program involves studying rifted continental margins and their conjugates in order to contribute to global knowledge on how these margins develop while providing insights on how these rifting processes impact petroleum systems. The short-term goals are to better constrain our current crustal models of rifted continental and transitional crust by taking advantage of new geophysical datasets being acquired on the eastern Canadian margin, as well as on the conjugate margins. These efforts will involve (1) seismic processing work to provide improved images of the crustal variations both along and across conjugate pairs; (2) detailed seismic interpretation work to relate geological boundaries with their geophysical character both within and across conjugate pairs; and (3) gravity inversion work to extend newfound seismic constraints to greater depth and over a broader region. The longer-term goals are to continue to undertake original scientific crustal-scale seismic experiments, in conjunction with industry, government, and international collaborators, over key regions where data gaps remain and where the current state of knowledge does not adequately explain the observations.******The proposed research is important to the energy exploration industry and all levels of government due to the territorial and economic impact of enhanced exploration. The gravity inversion methods developed will be of particular strategic importance to Canada as they will provide a low-cost approach to characterizing the deep structure of the Arctic where the federal government has identified responsible development as a research priority. Lastly, 10 highly qualified geoscientists will be trained for work in academia, government, and industry in Canada and internationally.