Midcontinent Rift
North America’s Midcontinent Rift: When Rift Met LIP Seth Stein1, Carol Stein2, Jonas Kley3, Randy Keller4, Trevor Bollman1, Emily Wolin1, Hao Zhang1, Andrew Frederiksen5, Kunle Ola5, Michael Wysession6, Douglas Wiens6, Ghassan Al-Equabi6, Greg Waite7, Eunice Blavascunas8, Carol Engelmann7, Lucy Flesch9, Jake Crane9, Tyrone Rooney10, Robert Moucha11, Eric Brown12 1Northwestern Univ., 2Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, 3Georg-August-Universität Göngen, 4Univ. of Oklahoma, 5Univ. of Manitoba, 6Washington Univ., 7Michigan EarthScope Tech, 8Whitman College, 9Purdue Univ., video 10Michigan State Univ., 11Syracuse Univ., 12Aarhus Univ. EarthScope is catalyzing a new generaon of studies of North American geology Its large-scale nature encourages a synopc view EUS targets are large buried structures formed in distant past How & why did they form? Combine new & exisng geophysical data with insights from analogous younger & beEer understood structures elsewhere USArray Integrate with geological, 1/2012 petrological/geochemical data; kinemac & dynamic models Midcontinent Rift Prominent on (MCR) gravity & magnetic anomaly maps Long arms of buried dense & highly magnetized 1.1 Ga igneous rocks ~ 3000 km long ~ 2 x 106 km3 magma Outcrops near Lake Superior Broader Impact: MCR gave rise to Lake Superior, the basis of the surrounding area’s water-based history and economy, copper and building stone deposits that shaped the area’s selement and growth, and today’s tourism (place–based E&O opportunity). Pictured Rocks Naonal Apostle Islands Lakeshore, MI Naonal
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