US-Egypt Cooperative Research: A Paleocene/Eocene Boundary Golden Spike: Stratigraphic Studies in the Nile Valley (Egypt)

0107898

Aubry

Description: This award is to support a collaborative project between a US team headed by Dr. Marie-Pierre Aubry, Department of Geological Sciences at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey and an Egyptian team headed by Dr. Khaled Ouda, Geology Department, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt. They plan to conduct research in the central Nile Valley (Upper Egypt) designed to recover a complete upper Paleocene-lower Eocene marine sedimentary stratigraphic section. The main thrust is the recovery of a complete stratigraphic record of the major biotic and stable isotope events that have characterized the Paleocene-Eocene boundary interval that spans the 2.55-m.y.-long Chron C24r, and, in particular, the Late Paleocene Thermal maximum (LPTM). They plan to conduct a series of analyses (integrated bio-magneto-cyclo-stable isotope stratigraphy and sedimentology) on outcrop (and corehole) material which will provide an integrated high-resolution chronologic framework for this critical interval in earth history. Reconstructions of conditions on Earth during the LPTM may unravel the general dynamics of a sudden warming and serve as the framework for a predictive model for the greenhouse world of the decades/centuries ahead.

Scope: The project supports collaboration between two experienced teams of investigators. The site for the fieldwork is best suited for the purpose of delineating the P/E boundary. The US team members, including staff from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The research will provide for training of graduate students at Assiut University in various topics in geology and paleontology in particular, and will provide baseline studies and data in lower paleogene stratigraphy of the upper Nile Valley of Egypt, which are of interest to Egyptian and US academic geologists. One US graduate student also will participate in this research and gain experience in international research projects. The proposal meets the INT objective of supporting collaborative research in areas of mutual interest. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.