Conveners: The GeoPRISMS Office on behalf of the ENAM Community
The imminent arrival of the EarthScope transportable array (TA) and selection of the Eastern North American Margin (ENAM) as a GeoPRISMS primary site, are defining exciting new research opportunities along this margin. In addition, the USGS is responsible for coordinating the collection of seismic data along the eastern seaboard as part of the US Extended Continental Shelf Project under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Tentatively, USGS surveys in the ENAM area will take place in 2013 using the R/V Langseth seismic vessel, providing potential opportunities for piggy-back experiments.
This convergence of interest in ENAM, and the presence of the R/V Langseth in Atlantic waters, offers a unique opportunity to conduct a community seismic experiment along the ENAM, benefiting a large number of researchers, especially students and early-career investigators. Improved seismic imaging of the margin, both shallow and deep, onshore and off, would address a wide range of GeoPRISMS and related research objectives. It can yield a backbone dataset for studying the deep structure of the margin, its structural and stratigraphic architecture, ongoing geodynamic processes, economic potential, and many other aspects.
If you would like to learn more, participate in, and/or contribute to planning discussions about the scope and objectives of such a community seismic experiment, please register to attend the luncheon. The luncheon discussion will include:
- Identifying and prioritizing scientific objectives for an ENAM seismic experiment
- Possible end-member survey scenarios (e.g., minimum cost vs. comprehensive coverage)
- How to engage and coordinate with potential partners (USGS, Industry)
- Data access requirements and expectations (and schedules)
- How to prepare and submit a community proposal
Jared Kluesner (UC Santa Cruz)
11:30 Introduction and background
12:20 Discussion
12:30 PM Possible Experiment Scenarios | 1 Mb – N. Miller, Daniel Brothers, J. Kluesner
Discussion
1:00 PM Moving Forward with Community Involvement
Wrap-up
Julia Morgan (GeoPRISMS Office, Rice University)
Figure 1: Map of Discovery Corridors in ENAM focus area. The red shaded area is the target of the USGS seismic program on the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf. ECMA = East Coast Magnetic Anomaly, BSMA = Blake Spur Magnetic Anomaly.
Eastern North America (ENAM) was chosen as a GeoPRISMS Rift Initiation and Evolution primary site because it represents a mature rifted continental margin in which the entire record of continental break-up and rifting is preserved. The rifting history along ENAM is well recorded in basin stratigraphy and the underlying crustal structure, although subsidence, sediment transport and fluid flow are presently the dominant geological processes along the margin. The study of old rifted margins is often challenged by a thick cover of sediments, which masks much of the deep crustal structure. This is also true for ENAM; however, over the next few years, unprecedented opportunities exist to carry out focused geophysical studies, revealing both shallow and deep structures of ENAM in greater detail.
