RUI: Reconstructing ancient terrestrial landscapes of the southeastern Columbia Basin

RUI：重建哥伦比亚盆地东南部的古代陆地景观

基本信息

批准号：
1930835
负责人：
Nicholas Bader
金额：
$ 33.31万
依托单位：
Whitman College
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-07-01 至 2024-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1930835&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
RUI Reconstructing ancient terrestrial landscapes

项目摘要

Landscapes change over geological time as water, wind, and volcanic activity reshape Earth’s surface. In southeastern Washington State, today’s landscape reflects two events of unimaginable size: mammoth eruptions of molten lava and much later, Ice Age mega-floods that scoured and reshaped the landscape. This project focuses on the missing interval between these two events and uses ancient soils to learn about the environment when these ancient landscapes formed. Twelve undergraduate students will be engaged in research experiences that will incorporate field and laboratory techniques that are in wide use in the geosciences.The goal of this research is to characterize terrestrial environments following the eruption of the Columbia River Basalts in southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, and to reconstruct the geological processes that shaped the landscape in this area. This will be accomplished by creating a network of field sites across the southeastern Columbia Basin that expose weathered basalt contacts and paleosols. At each site the morphology of the contact and underlying basalt will be characterized, and samples will be collected for lab analyses of micromorphological features and bulk chemical abundances. Lava flows are exposed throughout the region at different elevations, allowing for the study of precipitation gradients and their influence on basalt weathering, and to measure differences in pedogenesis caused by exposure time or thermal diagenesis. These analyses will provide the ability to (i) better understand the timing of Cascade uplift and the subsequent aridification of the Columbia Basin, (ii) reconstruct the landforms caused by periods of glacial outburst flooding that predate the most recent Ice Age floods and (iii) distinguish original soil weathering from post-burial processes. This research will increase understanding of the complex tectonics of the Pacific Northwest and provide insights into the impact of megafloods in shaping the terrestrial landscape.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.

随着水，风和火山活动的重塑地面的表面，地质时期的景观变化。在华盛顿州东南部，当今的景观反映了两个不可想象的事件：熔岩熔岩的猛烈爆发，后来，冰河时代的巨型洪水扫描并重塑了景观。该项目着重于这两个事件之间的缺失间隔，并使用古老的土壤来了解这些古老的景观时。十二名本科生将参与研究经验，这些研究经验将纳入地球科学中广泛使用的现场和实验室技术。这项研究的目的是在华盛顿东南部和俄勒冈州东北部的哥伦比亚河山巴斯特人喷发后表征陆地环境，并塑造了该领域的地质过程，这些环境塑造了该领域，并塑造了该领域的陆地。这将通过在哥伦比亚东南部盆地建立一个田野网站来实现，该网站揭示了风化的玄武岩触点和古质。在每个地点，将表征接触和基础玄武岩的形态，并将收集样品以分析微观形态特征和体积化学丰度。熔岩流在整个区域暴露在不同的海拔地区，从而可以研究降水梯度及其对玄武岩风化的影响，并测量由暴露时间或热成岩作用引起的修剪差异。这些分析将提供（i）更好地了解级联隆起的时机和随后的哥伦比亚盆地的干旱化，（ii）重建由冰川爆发时期引起的地形，该期限早于最近的冰期冰期地板，并且（iii）将原始土壤潮流与后的土壤潮流与外生过程区分开。这项研究将提高人们对西北太平洋复杂构造学的了解，并为大型氟中心在塑造陆地景观方面的影响提供见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来评估的支持。