US-Turkey Cooperative Research: Present-Day Kinematics and Dynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean/Caucasus: Interaction of the Arabian, African, and Eurasian Plates

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

9909619 Reilinger Description: This award is to support the collaboration of Dr. Robert Reilinger, Principal Research Scientist, Earth Resources Laboratory, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and several scientists from the Middle East and the Caucasus regions. The primary collaborator is Dr. Aykut A. Barka, Professor of Geology at Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey. Other collaborators include Dr. Salah Mahmoud, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, Helwan, Egypt, Professor Mikhail Prilepin, United Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, Russia, and Dr. Merab Nadariya, Department of Geodesy and Cartography of Georgia, Tibilisi, Georgia. The research is to expand on results obtained by the PI and his MIT team using Global Positioning System (GPS) to quantify plate motions and inter/intra-plate deformation in the zone of the interaction of the Arabian, African, and Eurasian plates. The project has provided new constraints on the kinematics of this complex region, which in turn are providing new information on dynamic processes and the rheology of the oceanic and continental lithosphere. The new work is to further the delineation of the forces driving plate motions and intraplate deformation, and the rheological character of the continental and oceanic lithosphere responding to these forces. Scope: This project will support important research for which the primary support is provided by NSF's Division of Earth Sciences. This award will support the travel and living expenses of the US and the foreign scientists identified above who are involved in this project. The participation of these foreign scientists in field research and in meetings at MIT is expected to lead to improvement in the fieldwork and in the interpretation of the results obtained and in the conclusions to be reached. The multinational and regional nature of the research team is significant because of the synergetic effect. The project fits well with the objective of the Division of International Programs for encouraging mutually beneficial collaboration on research of important scientific problems.