About MARGINS Initiatives

Rupturing Continental Lithosphere

The five overarching themes comprise:

1. How does the strength of the lithosphere evolve during rupturing?
2. How is strain partitioned during lithospheric rupturing?
3. What is the role of magmatism (and volatiles) during extension and in the transition to sea-floor spreading and what is the relationship between magma petrogenesis and the deformation magnitude and history?
4. What is the stratigraphic response to lithospheric rupturing?
5. How are fluid fluxes modified or controlled by lithospheric rupturing?

Source to Sink

S2S addresses the following fundamental questions:

1. What processes control the rate of sediment and solute production in a dispersal system?
2. How does transport through the system alter the magnitude, grain size, and delivery rate to sediment sinks?
3. How is variability of sediment production, transport, and accumulation in a dispersal system preserved by the stratigraphic record?

Seismogenic Zone Experiment

SEIZE addresses the following questions:

1. What is the nature of strong, locked parts of seismogenic zones?
2. What are the temporal relationships among stress, strain, and fluid composition throughout the earthquake cycle?
3. What controls the up- and down-dip limits of the seismogenic zone?
4. What is the nature of tsunamigenic earthquake zone?
5. What is the role of large thrust earthquakes in mass flux of material in the subduction system?

Subduction Factory
 

SubFac addresses three fundamental science themes:

1. How do forcing functions such as convergence rate and upper plate thickness regulate production of magma and fluid from the Subduction Factory?
2. How does the volatile cycle (H2O and CO2) impact chemical, physical and biological processes from trench to deep mantle?
3. What is the mass balance of chemical species and material across the Subduction Factory, and how does this balance affect continental growth and evolution?