National Science Foundation Workshop
December 9-12, 2004
Stanford University, Stanford CA

Description | Publication & Dissemination of Results | Agenda | Conveners | Sponsors

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

This joint workshop brought together key research scientists from Russia and the U.S with an interest in investigating the plate tectonic evolution of the North Pacific and the Arctic, with focus on the regional geology and geophysics of NE Russia. The primary goal of the workshop was to frame a long-term scientific plan and to outline potential collaborative projects that utilize existing expertise, databases, laboratories and institutional capabilities. These projects will be designed to address unanswered questions and problems relevant to a more complete understanding of plate motions leading to the present Arctic and North Pacific margins of NE Russia and Alaska. We aim to stimulate communication between different research groups, institutions, and disciplines. It is particularly important to foster collaborations between geologists and geophysicists, leading to more holistic tectonic models for the region. One of the missives of the workshop was to bring together young researchers  from Russia and the U.S. who will be responsible for carrying out proposed collaborative projects in the future. Our workshop included representatives from academia, research, government and industry.

North America and Eurasia form one continental mass across the Bering Shelf. The U.S. and Russia share continental margins in the Arctic and along the active plate boundaries of the North Pacific Ocean. Recent acquisition of high cost, quality seismic, bathymetric, gravity and magnetic data in the Arctic Ocean basins and Bering Shelf, collected by ships, satellites, airplanes and submarines, have resulted in a refined understanding of the evolution of the Bering Shelf and parts of the Arctic basins. Despite these recent advances, our understanding of the plate tectonic history leading to the present-day configuration of the surrounding continents, shelves and plate boundaries in the Arctic is quite poor.  NE Russia, because of its location and great size, represents the greatest gap in our knowledge of the geologic and tectonic history of the Arctic and North Pacific margins; filling this knowledge gap is essential for improving our understanding of the North American parts of these margins as well.

The workshop, focused on the geologic and tectonic evolution of NE Russia, allowed us to establish what modern data bases exist for Russia, what geophysical and geological projects are underway and, from our shared interests, produced many exciting ideas for collaborative research.  In summary, we believe that a better knowledge of the geological and plate tectonic history of NE Russia will provide the basic framework with which to understand its extensive history of deformation and magmatism, the evolution of its offshore continental shelves, and its neotectonic framework. The results of new collaborations and continued research in NE Russia will be of interest to the much larger Arctic and Pacific Rim international research communities and will also contribute to our knowledge of the natural resources of our shared continental margins and orogenic belts.

PUBLICATION AND DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS

Workshop proceedings are reported in two formats. This website will serve as the primary archive of the results of our meeting and includes access to the electronic versions of introductory regional presentations and the resuls of focus group conclusions. The site will contain updated contact information for workshop participants and any links to their research groups and university/institute homepages. The co-conveners will also prepare a brief post-workshop report that includes discussion of the long-term research objectives of the northeast Russia geoscience community as established by focus groups at the workshop. This report will be distributed to conference participants and to appropriate NSF-EAR programs (e.g. Continental Dynamics, Tectonics, Polar Programs, Arctic Natural Sciences, and International NSF) to apprise NSF program officers of the current progress in NE Russian tectonics as well as inform them of the salient unresolved regional and topical geologic/tectonic problems in the region.