Proyectos

Longstanding goals of scientific ocean drilling include determining the timing and amplitudes of global sea-level change, as well as the role of eustacy in the generation and preservation of continental margin stratigraphy. However, continental margin sedimentation is a function of both allogenic and autogenic processes, and extracting a eustatic record requires an understanding of local sedimentary processes and their influence on strata formation. IODP Expedition 317 to Canterbury Basin, New Zealand provides an opportunity to identify the regional processes involved in the formation of sedimentary sequences where temporally evolving across-shelf and along-margin sediment sources potentially interact with both eustasy and tectonics to generate margin stratigraphy. This study defines sedimentary petrofacies using petrographic and X-ray diffraction techniques and combines them with lithofacies to characterize sedimentation within unconformity-bounded sequences. Differentiating the relative influence of each sediment source is made possible by the unique aspects of the onshore geology and sediment supplied by the rivers of South Island, New Zealand: in this system sediment composition is a proxy for transport mode/direction, with mica-rich schist detritus being brought in from the south, and graywacke Torlesse detritus from the west. Higher-resolution analyses will target specific seismic sequences from the Pliocene to Recent that represent changing climatic and eustatic conditions. A primary hypothesis tested is that recurring lithofacies motifs that likely formed during high-amplitude Pleistocene sea-level cycles can be linked to sediment provenance, and even where less lithologically distinct, a recognizable signal may remain in the detrital fraction. Another hypothesis is that the formation of Plio- Pleistocene sequences along the Canterbury Margin is strongly influenced by the relative sediment supply from alongshore/shelf (Clutha/Waitaki rivers) versus cross-margin (Rangitata-Ashburton-Rakaia braided system) transport, with the latter becoming more dominant in the later Pleistocene, potentially leading to an autogenic increase in accommodation space that lead to increased sequence preservation. A holistic approach is used to test these hypotheses, similar to that applied in the MARGINS Source-to-Sink focus site on North Island, New Zealand. This methodology links newly acquired data from onshore outcrops, stream and coastal deposits (collected in conjunction with New Zealand colleagues) to Expedition 317 results in order to evaluate potential basin-wide changes in sediment supply and distribution. Temporal changes in the relative timing and routing of sediment to the Canterbury margin are determined from comparisons between the cross-shelf (U1351, U1353, U1354) and the two Canterbury slope sites (ODP Site 1119 and U1352). Discrete mineralogical observations from this study eventually will be compared to and combined with high-resolution elemental and carbonate analyses proposed by Fulthorpe et al. to provide key petrologic and mineralogic constraints on core and seismic data interpretation for the margin, including distinguishing lithologic changes that might correspond to Milankovitch cyclicity. The history of global sea level change and the impact of future sea-level rise related to global warming are one of the foremost issues facing society. Drilling results from the Canterbury Margin represent a key global component of a comprehensive IODP program to extract sea-level information from continental margin stratigraphy. Our data and results will be made publically available through the IODP portal as part of the IODP Sample, Data, and Obligations Policy and through presentations at meetings and publications. This study will provide educational opportunities for a number of high school, undergraduate and graduate students at CSU Northridge and the University of Florida. One high school student from Florida will participate as part of the UF Student Science Training Program (UF-SSTP), a seven-week residential research program for junior and senior-level high schools students considering science careers. Two undergraduate and two graduate students will participate in this project from CSUN and UF, including students from underrepresented groups and it is expected this participation will form the basis for their theses (BS/MS) or dissertation. The project includes an educational outreach program at UF as part of the UF Geogator program that provides presentations to local K-12 programs about Earth and our environment. The program will make the research on global sea-level change accessible to the local Florida community, where rising sea level and the hazards associated with it are a growing societal concern.

Water confined in Å- to nm-scale pores is volumetrically and chemically important in surficial and near surface geological environments. Partitioning of water between bulk liquid and vapor phases and water confined in spaces within and between minerals plays a critical role in determining the fate of geochemical and geobiological processes. Despite considerable effort over the past several decades focused on the properties of confined water, rigorous thermodynamic models permitting simultaneous consideration of confined water stability relative to bulk water that are consistent with widely employed geochemical models are generally not available. In part, this is due to a paucity of physical chemical models permitting quantitative description of the hysteresis that is commonly observed between sorption and desorption of confined water. The present study addresses these needs through a combination of equilibrium observations, calorimetric measurements, and thermodynamic modeling of a selected suite of systems containing confined water. Model zeolite and nanoporous systems exhibiting hysteretic sorption/desorption behavior will be studied in order to test a newly developed thermodynamic model that shows promise in predicting hysteretic behavior. In addition, two other types of systems will be studied to fill in gaps currently present in the understanding of the factors controlling the stability of confined water: a) pure silica zeolites in which water molecules do not solvate ions; and c) zeolite systems containing confined water that is only bonded to ions. Water in these systems exhibits ?endmember? structural states, that when combined form the environments found in most previously studied microporous confined water systems (that is, those containing water molecules that both solvate ions and interact with the confining medium).

Water confined in Å- to nm-scale pores is volumetrically and chemically important in surficial and near surface geological environments. Partitioning of water between bulk liquid and vapor phases and water confined in spaces within and between minerals plays a critical role in determining the fate of geochemical and geobiological processes. Despite considerable effort over the past several decades focused on the properties of confined water, rigorous thermodynamic models permitting simultaneous consideration of confined water stability relative to bulk water that are consistent with widely employed geochemical models are generally not available. In part, this is due to a paucity of physical chemical models permitting quantitative description of the hysteresis that is commonly observed between sorption and desorption of confined water. The present study addresses these needs through a combination of equilibrium observations, calorimetric measurements, and thermodynamic modeling of a selected suite of systems containing confined water. Model zeolite and nanoporous systems exhibiting hysteretic sorption/desorption behavior will be studied in order to test a newly developed thermodynamic model that shows promise in predicting hysteretic behavior. In addition, two other types of systems will be studied to fill in gaps currently present in the understanding of the factors controlling the stability of confined water: a) pure silica zeolites in which water molecules do not solvate ions; and c) zeolite systems containing confined water that is only bonded to ions. Water in these systems exhibits ?endmember? structural states, that when combined form the environments found in most previously studied microporous confined water systems (that is, those containing water molecules that both solvate ions and interact with the confining medium).