| NSF Org: |
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | February 11, 2011 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 18, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1024443 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Judith Skog
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | March 1, 2011 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $119,434.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $175,887.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2012 = $92,975.00 FY 2014 = $56,501.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
6823 SAINT CHARLES AVE NEW ORLEANS LA US 70118-5665 (504)865-4000 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
6823 SAINT CHARLES AVE NEW ORLEANS LA US 70118-5665 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Sedimentary Geo & Paleobiology |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001213DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Collaborative Research: Statistical methods for quantifying autogenic processes in sedimentary basins
Kyle Straub, Tulane University, EAR-1024443
Elizabeth Hajek, Penn State University, EAR-1024710
ABSTRACT
Project summary
Ancient sedimentary basins are archives of past climate, tectonic, and land-surface changes on Earth. These deposits also contain important energy and water reserves and will serve as hosts for carbon capture and storage. In order to manage these resources and understand sedimentary deposits, improved methods are needed for interpreting and predicting stratigraphic patterns. Internally generated (autogenic) dynamics in sedimentary systems can generate stratigraphy that mimics patterns produced by tectonics, climate, and sea level changes. Statistical methods are needed to filter autogenic signals from sedimentary deposits in order fully understand and model stratigraphy. This project aims to determine the primary controls on autogenic sedimentation patterns and develop methods for identifying and filtering autogenic signals from the stratigraphic record. Through a combination of experiments, numerical modeling, and fieldwork, PIs will map and measure stratigraphic organization produced by rivers and deltas with different sizes and characteristic avulsion timescales. This work will advance our ability to recover meaningful data about autogenic processes from stratigraphic datasets, isolate preserved signals of changing environmental conditions in ancient deposits, and generate predictive stratigraphic models in alluvial basins.
Broader Impacts
Using the stratigraphic record to understand the evolution of river and delta environments will improve our ability to manage natural resources and forecast the response of deltas to climate change. In an effort to increase public understanding about how sediment is transported through river deltas and how these deltas evolve through time PIs will hold short courses at Tulane University?s Sediment Dynamics Laboratory for high school students and teachers. These courses will be developed in collaboration with Abramson Science & Technology Charter School in New Orleans, which was founded after Hurricane Katrina to improve the science and math education of underprivileged communities in New Orleans. During these interactive courses students will build an experimental delta and explore its reaction to changing environmental conditions, including rising sea level. The faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates working on this research project will facilitate these classes. Additionally, funding for this project will support two PhD students and several undergraduate researchers and will help two early career faculty establish successful research programs.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Work conducted as part of this project has demonstrated that internally generated, or autogenic, terrestrial and marine sediment-transport dynamics can produce patterns in the stratigraphy of sedimentary rocks similar to those associated with climate, tectonic, or sea-level changes. In order to accurately interpret the sedimentary archive, a central challenge to stratigraphers is determining what scales and types of deposits reflect autogenic controls on sedimentation in different environments. Over the course of this project we have characterized how the flux of water and sediment to a sedimentary basin, floods, and sediment cohesion influence the scales of autogenic products in the stratigraphic record and how to separate these signals from those of changing environmental parameters. This work aids our ability to quantitatively read the record of Earth’s past from stratigraphy.
Specifically, we found that the transition from localized, variable sedimentation to even, basin-wide sedimentation marks the shift from stochastic, landscape dynamics to deterministic deposition responding to the long-term balance of sediment supply and accommodation creation. This threshold can be measured in a wide variety of stratigraphic successions and has important bearing on whether climate, tectonic, or sea-level signals will be uniquely recognizable in physical sedimentary deposits.
As part of this project three graduate students were funded to work on their degrees, and multiple undergraduates learned research skills during summer internships. The project also supported the career development of the PI who was an early career scientist when the project was funded, in addition to funding activities of laboratory technicians involved in the project.
Last Modified: 06/08/2017
Modified by: Kyle Straub
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