This three-year award for U.S.-France cooperative research in geophysics involves the research groups of W. Roger Buck at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, and Alexei Poliakov at the University of Montpellier II in Montpellier, France. The objective of their research is to investigate three related areas in fault generation in mid-ocean ridges and rifts: (1) general models of faulting; (2) distribution of faults in rift environments; and (3) development and testing of models of low-angle normal fault development. The project takes advantage of French expertise in numerical modeling of continental extension and faulting. It will advance understanding of the orientation and distribution of faults.
