This award provides one-half of the funds required to purchase equipment items needed to upgrade the Sedimentary Basins Research Facility in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences at MIT. The remaining funds required will be provided by the institution. Equipment items included in the upgrade are a microscope and a cathodoluminescence-fluorescence optical system. A sedimentary basin is a site of pronounced sediment accumulation. Commonly, sediments fill major depressions in the Earth's crust, producing deposits that are 1-10 kilometers thick. Crustal subsidence on such scales occurs in a variety of tectonic settings, ranging from tensional rifts and passive continental margins to foreland regions associated with active compression. A major focus of sedimentary basin studies at MIT is to identify and isolate basin formative mechanisms so that basin history can be understood. The objectives of such studies are to reach better understanding of basin evolution and to improve knowledge of the processes (such as oil formation and migration) that operate at deep levels in the basins.
