941583 Gorsline This Americas Program award will support the doctoral dissertation research of two students, M.C. Enrique Nava Sanchez, and M.C. Janette Murillo de Nava, under the direction of Dr. Donn Gorsline, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, on coastal studies in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The goal of the project is to obtain a comparative understanding of little known arid and semiarid coastal types. Emphasis will be in two areas: the fan-deltas of the Gulf of California coast of Baja California Sur and the semi-arid Magdalena Coastal Plain of the Central Pacific coast of Baja California. These tectonically active areas provide a unique opportunity to contrast broad coastal plain evolution with steep mountain fan-delta coasts under similar climatic conditions. Fan-delta deposits are very important potential stratigraphic hydrocarbon reservoirs. In the study area they serve as ground water reservoirs and as main habitation areas. An understanding of their geometry, architecture, physical properties and physiography is thus of considerable significance. Modern work on fan-deltas has been mainly done in glacial or humid areas and models for the deposits are based on outercrops in East Greenland and their occurrences in the North Sea. By diversifying the climatic and physiographic setting, this study will provide an important addition to the field of sedimentology and to ongoing studies in Arctic fjords and protected waters elsewhere. *** .
