| NSF Org: |
EAR Division Of Earth Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 22, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 22, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1943784 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Margaret Benoit
mbenoit@nsf.gov (703)292-7233 EAR Division Of Earth Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | June 3, 2019 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $49,835.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $49,835.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2 EAST LANSING MI US 48824-2600 (517)355-5040 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
288 Farm Lane East Lansing MI US 48824-2600 |
| 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): | EARTHSCOPE |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| 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
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.
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.
This award supported a series of workshops, both online and in-person, that stimulated scientific synthesis and international cooperation. The main regional focus of this project was on Alaska and adjacent areas of Canada, with an additional goal of getting US scientists engaged with Canadian counterparts who are trying to develop a large program (called EON/ROSE) in Canada that is modeled on the EarthScope program. Overall, these efforts engaged nearly 200 scientists across both the US and Canada.
During Spring 2021, we held a series of weekly seminars (“Alaska EarthScope and Beyond”). Held as Zoom webinars, peak attendance was well over 100 participants and most seminars drew more than 60 participants. Talks covered a wide range of topics related to EarthScope science and using EarthScope data (or complementary observations).
We held an online workshop in May 2021 that focused on integrating and synthesizing the scientific outcomes of the EarthScope program’s work in Alaska and the adjacent parts of Canada. EarthScope deployed a temporary seismic network that covered the entirety of Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada for the first time. This new data enabled many new studies of the structure and earthquake patterns across the region. Our workshop prompted a group of mostly early career seismologists to carry out a systematic comparison of the recently published crustal thickness and seismic velocity models, which has clarified which features in models are robust and which might be dependent on model assumptions. EarthScope also deployed a GPS network across the region, which has clarified the long-term motion and deformation of crustal blocks and provided important new information about several large earthquakes over the last 15 years.
The schedule for these seminars and online workshop, and links to recordings of all seminars, are hosted at https://www.unavco.org/event/2021-alaska-earthscope-and-beyond/.
We held an in-person workshop in April 2022 as part of the EON/ROSE International Scientific Workshop Series, in Nanaimo, BC Canada. During the week of April 25, 2022, EON-ROSE convened a series of scientific workshops with a hybrid format at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre in Nanaimo, British Columbia. We convened two workshops during this series, both with hybrid participation. The first was a workshop focused on synthesis of the Alaska EarthScope program, which was held concurrently with an induced seismicity workshop focused on northeastern British Columbia. The second was a workshop focused on key science questions and emerging opportunities to expand data coverage in the Canadian cordillera and elsewhere in Canada through a potential future EON-ROSE program, with a range of applications from crustal movement, environmental sensing and space weather.
A final direct outcome of this project will be the publication of a book that will bring together research papers related to the discoveries made in Alaska in the 15 years since the start of the EarthScope program. This book, which will be published as part of the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Monograph series, will provide an essential summary and reference for the current state of knowledge. It has also attracted several synthesis papers that document data and models that will be used as input for the US Geological Survey’s updated seismic hazard map for Alaska.
Last Modified: 03/24/2023
Modified by: Jeffrey T Freymueller
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