Workshop for Alaska EarthScope Synthesis and Future Opportunities in Canada with EON-ROSE: September 2019

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

Alaska is home to a major tectonic plate boundary, creating conditions that give rise to significant volcanic activity and frequent earthquakes. Though progress has been made in the last 25 years in understanding the geology and tectonic history of Alaska, the EarthScope Transportable Array and Plate Boundary Observatory provide the opportunity to make significant advances in constraining the structure and dynamics of the plate boundary. This project would support a workshop that would bring together Earth scientists from different disciplines to integrate and synthesize information from geology and geophysics to provide a synoptic understanding of tectonics in Alaska. The project would support approximately twenty participants to attend this workshop, as well as two complementary workshops to be held in Sitka, Alaska, and Whitehorse, Canada, and result in the development of multiple synthesis or review papers. The project would also foster United States - Canada research network development. This project would support the development of a EarthScope synthesis workshop focused on elucidating what EarthScope has accomplished in understanding the tectonics of Alaska. The primary workshop goal is for the development of multiple synthesis papers. The workshop will be held in conjunction with a Geological Society of America Penrose conference and a Canadian-lead EON-ROSE (Earth-System Observing Network - Reseau d'Observation du Systeme terrestrE) workshop, to maximize the participation of the EarthScope community in these activities. The workshop agenda includes approximately one day of plenary talks and EarthScope synthesis discussion groups followed by a field trip from Sitka, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, that takes participants between meeting venues. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.