“Future of the NSF-MARGINS Initiative Rifting Continental Lithosphere (RCL)”

A pre-AGU activity: Sunday, December 9, 2007, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Metropolitan 3 Ballroom, The Westin San Francisco Market Street (50 Third Street)

One day workshop from 9 am to 5 pm on December 9th

A)  Welcome and Introduction (Buck and Umhoefer)
Goal- How do we decide what structure for RCL in the next MARGINS?

1. Same criteria**; same focus sites  (Gulf of California; allied N Red Sea)
2. Same criteria**; different focus sites, or combination of GoC and new sites
3. Continue focus sites, but expand criteria to ancient (passive margins), and nascent rifts
4. Change to focus on questions & processes

B) Review of MARGINS-RCL and current status of research
Status of RCL within MARGINS and overview of MARGINS program (Abers and NSF representative)
Status of IODP Mission proposal (Hopper)
Review of Gulf of California focus site (Lizarralde?, Stock? Or Oskin?)
Review of modeling related to RCL (Buck)

C) Questions Driving RCL Research (Umhoefer, Buck)
Should we leave this open and ask for volunteers??

Lunch –1 – 2 pm

D) Places to Investigate Rift Questions
Here is where we assign champions of different areas and ask for volunteers.

E)  Breakout groups related to future of RCL

F) What format for RCL-MARGINS Decade II? (Buck, Umhoefer)
1. Discuss possibilities that we favor.
2. How to proceed.

** Criteria for RCL Focus Sites
• active continental rifting to culminate laterally in seafloor spreading;
• conjugate margins are identifiable;
• pre-rift sediments and or basement and syn-rift sediments and associated fault geometries can be adequately imaged and sampled;
• the crustal structure of the entire rift system and its transition to seafloor spreading can be imaged at kilometer scales;
•any transitional and young oceanic crust is accessible to sampling; and
•the plate-tectonic kinematic framework is/can be well-resolved.