| NSF Org: |
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 16, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 16, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1912709 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Russell Kelz
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $36,537.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $36,537.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 PROSPECT ST PROVIDENCE RI US 02912-9100 (401)863-2777 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Office of Sponsored Projects Providence RI US 02912-9093 |
| 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): |
GLOBAL CHANGE, Instrumentation & Facilities, XC-Crosscutting Activities Pro, Sedimentary Geo & Paleobiology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Lake Tanganyika Scientific Drilling Site Survey
This grant will support a site survey to Lake Tanganyika with marine engineers and continental scientific drilling personnel to finalize and verify proposals and a budget for drilling Lake Tanganyika for submission to the International Continental Drilling Program and the NSF in 2019/2020.
This grant will support a site visit to Lake Tanganyika with marine engineers and continental scientific drilling personnel to finalize and verify proposals and a budget for drilling Lake Tanganyika for submission to the International Continental Drilling Program and the NSF in 2019/2020. The grant will support the following on-site requisite work:
1) Evaluate existing vessels on Lake Tanganyika and their suitability for use as drilling ship, evaluate existing marine shipyards and their capabilities (dry dock, etc.) to modify vessels on the lake, and to develop a budget for these activities;
2) Evaluate on-and off-shore housing for scientists and drillers and sites for a core laboratory;
3) Evaluate smaller vessels and work boats on the lake to determine their suitability to serve as personnel and crew transport vessels, and determine costs for these;
4) Identify local contractors for fuel supply, personnel transport, food, banking, and other services, and obtain costsfor those services;
5) Obtain up-to-date information on research and drilling permitting procedures for Tanganyika.
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.
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.
The overarching goal of this award was to develop the scientific and logistical plans to carry out the Tanganyika Scientific Drilling Project (TSDP). The TSDP is a US-led international program that includes 93 scientists from 10 countries who seek to obtain drill cores from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. These cores would be used to study the evolution of tropical climate and African environments during the past 10 million years, when the Earth’s large ice sheets expanded and humans evolved; to study how the endemic fish, snails, and other organisms living in Tanganyika evolved; and to investigate how the geology and morphology of the Tanganyika rift basis. Lake Tanganyika is the oldest tropical lake on Earth and is uniquely situated to address all of these questions, stimulting enormous interest in this project. The project could transform scientific understanding of tropical climates, evolutionary biology, and rift basin geology. This in turn will help society to predict future climate change, improve efforts to conserve aquatic biota, and enhance our understanding of geological resources and hazards such as earthquakes in rift systems.
Scientific drilling projects are technically and logistically challenging, and require detailed logistical plans and well-coordinated networks of scientists, private drilling contractors, and government agencies. This award supported project planning and fact-finding activities essential to developing the TSDP. The project supported a workshop attended by nearly 70 scientists to develop scientific plans and goals for the TSDP, as well as coordination meetings between the project leaders and collaborating scientists in East Africa. The project also supported engineering studies to develop a drilling barge capable of recovering long drill cores from deep lakes such as Tanganyika, and detailed logistical plans for how the project would be carried out. These include plans for project permitting, health and safety, fuel supply, import and export of samples and equipment, and other technical implementation activities and plans.
The project resulted in research training activities for nearly 30 early career scientists (including graduate students and beginning faculty), contributing to the US scientific workforce. Results of the project were disseminated through a project Facebook page and a publication available to anyone. The project has fully developed the scientific and technical goals to drill long cores from Lake Tanganyika.
Last Modified: 05/18/2022
Modified by: James M Russell
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