The Cooperative Institute for Dynamic Earth Research has been conducting 6-7 week long bi-annual summer programs since 2004 to foster synergies between individual and small groups of researchers. The goal is to help improve fundamental understanding of the Earth's evolution and present dynamics through a multi-disciplinary approach that facilitates cross-education among the disciplines involved: seismology, geochemistry, geodynamics, mineral physics and geomagnetism. CIDER facilitates cross-education of earth scientists at any level in their career. Included in the summer programs are 3-4 weeks of lectures, tutorials and working group activities that contribute to the multi-disciplinary education of graduate students and post-docs in all disciplines of solid earth sciences. The work of CIDER will ultimately impact how to better address two key natural hazards issues of societal relevance: (1) natural hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; and (2) the whole-Earth budget of volatile elements, especially water and carbon dioxide.
Phase II of CIDER builds upon 5 years of experience with CIDER Phase I: three summer programs in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and input from a community workshop held at the Marconi Center, CA, May 2009 (which recommended continuation and expansion of CIDER programs) and an on-going 2010 summer program. These programs have all focused on 'deep Earth' science themes. Phase II of CIDER includes a 6 week long summer program to be held at UC Berkeley from June 27th to August 6th, 2011 on the theme 'The dynamics of mountain building', expanding the reach of CIDER to the multi-disciplinary community working on near-surface earth processes. In addition, it expands the activities of CIDER in two areas: 1) follow-up research started by multi-disciplinary working groups during the Summer programs held in 2010 and 2011; 2) expansion of the CIDER web capabilities, in particular, to experiment with and develop a supporting virtual organization.
) 2011 summer program supported by this grant was held at U. C. Berkeley from June 27th to July 22nd, 2011. The theme of the program was "Dynamics of mountain building". Mountain belts are one of the most obvious manifestations of the interior dynamics of our planet. The globe is characterized by 2 great mountain belts, the east-west trending Himalayan-Tethyan system running from Gibraltar to eastern Asia, and the north-south trending American Cordillera, extending from Tierra del Fuego to the Aleutian islands. The exploration of these mountain belts during the last two centuries, and modern mountain climbing, capture the public's imagination in the manner of astronomy and space exploration. Developing an understanding of the dynamics of mountain building requires a broad multi-disciplinary approach; one that includes geodynamics, seismology, geodesy, metamorphic and igneous petrology and geochemistry, structural geology, sedimentology, tectonic geomorphology, and mineral physics. The program brought together 30 expert researchers in these different fields, from different institutions in the US and abroad, as well as 38 senior graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. In addition to informal interactions, it included two weeks of lectures and practical tutorials. During the second week of lectures, participants identified several key questions and formed multi-disciplinary groups which, during the following two weeks of "workshop", worked on formulating a roadmap to address these questions. The detailed program and lecture presentations can be found at: www.deep-earth.org/2011/summer11.shtml Three of these groups continued their activities beyond the summer program, partly supported by this grant (facilitating meeting of the group members). The topics investigated by these groups included "crustal flow and rheology", as applied to the unusually thick crust beneath the Tibetan Plateau, the formation of "tears" in subducting slabs, specifically in south America, and the geodynamic mechanisms involved in producing a "flat slab". Broader Impacts One of the goals of the CIDER program is to educate a new generation of Earth scientists with breadth of competence across the disciplines contributing to understanding of the deep earth. This grant contributed to the education of 38 graduate students and post-docs. Another is to provide a suitable environment for researchers in different disciplines to interact and cross-educate each other towards building an integrative conceptual model drawing upon all contributing disciplines to understand the origin, evolution, and dynamics of the Earth and, by extension, other planets.
