9722507 Ingle This U.S.-Mexico award will support a research collaboration between Prof. James Ingle of Stanford University and Prof. Rodolfo Cruz-Orozco of the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas in La Paz, Mexico. The researchers aim to study unusual and geologically important subtropical shallow water carbonate environments in the La Paz area of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Results of this research will have immediate application to the interpretation of the modern, Quaternary, and Cenozoic oceanographic and paleoclimatic history of this climatically sensitive region; understanding the formation and preservation of carbonate sediments in tectonically active settings; and monitoring and protection of fragile marine environments in a proposed ecological reserve. This project will help to further international scientific collaboration between Mexican and U.S. scientists and graduate students and will substantially broaden our understanding of the little studied but environmentally unique and geologically important shallow carbonate environments of the southern Gulf of California. ***