AGU Chapman Conference on Detachments in Oceanic Lithosphere: Deformation, Magmatism, Fluid Flow, and Ecoystems

American Geophysical Union, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Detachment faults are now known to occur along a large portion of the earth's mid-ocean ridge system. This workshop, which is being run as an American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference in Cyprus in May of 2010, will bring together an international, interdisciplinary group of scientists to discuss these important, yet little understood, features. It will focus on identifing important gaps in our knowledge of detachment faults and their origin. Field excursions at the Troodos Ophiolite in Cyprus will allow participants to examine in detail, in an easily accessible location, key features of these structures. Empahsis will be on their tectonic significance, mechanisms of formation, and association with fluid seeps that host unusual deep sea organisms. Broader impacts of the work are strong in terms of training early career faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral resaerchers in the recognition, characteristics, and impacts of these structures. Broad dissemination of workshop results will be facilitated by the production of a volume of papers that summarize the present state of knowledge and that identify important gaps in knowledge of these important and prolific tectonic settings.