This award supports a two year project to initiate cooperative studies between the University of Alaska and the Institute of Geology of the Yakut Science Center, Yakutsk, USSR, on the tectonics of the northeastern USSR. This project will study the Mesozoic to present-day tectonics of eastern Yakut and its implications for the evolution of the Arctic Ocean and lithospheric processes. This will be done by examining the development of the Kolymian structural loop and its effects on the present-day North America- Eurasia plate boundary. This project will initially consist of studies of the paleomagnetism of Mesozoic rocks from the Cherskii Range (central Kolymian loop) and the seismotectonics of the northern Cherskii Range and adjacent areas. This award supports the initiation of a seismic data exchange between the Yakut Science Center and the Michigan State University and for cooperative analysis of seismic data.
