This project is a field- and laboratory based study of distal evidence for the early Late Devonian (~367 m.y. ago), marine Alamo Impact Event in the central Great Basin region. This marine impact occurred seaward of the western edge of an extensive, shallow-water carbonate platform bordering western North America, including the present area of eastern Nevada, western Utah, and southeastern California. This research will fill a fundamental gap in our knowledge of the onshore record of the Alamo Event and will serve to help develop a model for identifying and predicting the effects of continental-margin marine impacts, which include earthquakes, megatsunami, and impact-ejecta fallout, and their potential record in adjacent shallow-water and low-lying coastal areas. The main hypothesis to be tested by the research is that (a) widespread evidence of the Alamo Event is preserved in distal, onshore, inner carbonate-platform and peritidal settings surrounding the impact site; and (b) these isochronous, impact-related deposits can be distinguished from other types of superficially similar deposits by integrated biostratigraphic and event-stratigraphic correlation with proven Alamo Event deposits, by sedimentologic analysis, and by identification of diagnostic extraterrestrial impact indicators.
Intellectual Merit: This interdisciplinary study will focus on the relatively unstudied landward effects of continental-margin marine impact. The work will strive to provide important new data on the distal, onshore evidence of the Alamo impact, which will help to document the full magnitude of the event and will complement other studies on the proximal effects of the Event currently being conducted in south-central Nevada. Data generated by the study will serve not only to help recognize and model other ancient marine impacts, but also to help predict the possible environmental effects and hazards of future event-generated tsunami.
Broader Impacts: The undergraduate research assistants will be chosen from a cohort of Earth science education students comprising a typically underrepresented group of secondary teaching and interdisciplinary study majors. This work will provide the students with a unique, capstone field research opportunity that is otherwise unavailable within their standard curriculum, fostering a greater understanding of the scientific process that will in turn support and enhance their future careers as earth science educators. Post-project assessment of the research assistants will be used to evaluate the longer term benefits of involvement in the study. During the project, the PI and student research assistants will interact with scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, building collaborations that can potentially extend well beyond the life of the study.
