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Five undergraduate students funded by the grant (Benjamin Hocking, Jenna Hojnowski, Michael Oliver, William Pierce, and Mitchell Ward), as well as a sixth funded by an internal grant (Kathleen Sharman), have worked on the project over the past three summers.  Six additional undergraduates (Margret Avery, Megan Carey, Nicolas Crider, Brandon Defillipes, Katherine Dominguez, and Luke Halter) have participated in the research on limited part-time basis.   Specifically, the grant has paid for the summer salary for three students and the field expenses for four.  Four students have completed undergraduate senior research projects and presented their results at national geology conferences (Hojnowski, Oliver, Pierce, and Sharman).  Most recently, Benjamin Hocking and Mitchell Ward worked for three weeks over the Summer 2009.  The specific accomplishments of our research group include…
•    Publication of a numerical model that incorporates isostatic compensation and erosion into mountain building processes active at transpressional plate boundaries.  The model and the results from its application to the Central Range fault zone in Trinidad are in press  and available online at the Journal of Structural Geology (doi:10.1016/j.jsg.2009.02.003).  
•    Construction of an isostatic gravity anomaly map of the Central Range fault zone.  The map suggests that a crustal root has formed beneath the Central Range Mountains.  Michael Oliver analyzed 2,806 gravity stations provided by the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency database as part of his undergraduate senior thesis.  Results were presented at the national Geological Society of America meeting in 2008.
•    Development of a MATLAB program to analyze the shape and orientation of folds in the Central Range fault zone based on data extracted from a ArcGIS database.  Results from the model were presented at the national Geological Society of America meeting in 2007 and 2008.  The initial model formed the basis of Jenna Hojnowski’s undergraduate senior thesis during the Spring of 2008.   William Pierce worked with a more complete model and a larger dataset as part of his undergraduate senior thesis during the Fall of 2008.    
•    Completion of the collection and analysis of a suite of paleomagnetic samples from the Central Range Mountains.  The first half of the samples were collected and analyzed by during the 2007-2008 academic year as part of Kathleen Sharman’s undergraduate senior thesis.  The second half of the samples were collected during the Summer of 2008 and analyzed by a group of eight undergraduates during the Spring 2009 semester.  Participating students ranged in academic standing from freshman to senior.   Two participants, Benjamin Hocking and Mitchell Ward, continued working for three weeks over the summer to finish the collection of the paleomagnetic data and begin collecting magnetic mineralogy information.
•    Completion of the analysis of 10 apatite fission track samples collected from the Central Range Mountains by Apatite to Zircon, Inc.  
Analysis and interpretation of the paleomagnetic data and the apatite fission track data will form the basis for additional undergraduate senior thesis projects during the 2009-2010 academic year.  Specifically, Mitchell Ward will be working with the paleomagnetic data as part of his undergraduate senior thesis during the Spring 2010 semester.  I am currently searching for a student to work with the apatite fission track data.  We hope to present the results of these projects at the combined NE-SE Geological Society of America regional meeting in March 2010.

Progress on this research and its results have been presented by SUNY Geneseo undergraduate students and myself at regional and national Geological Society of America meetings:

Pierce, W., and Giorgis, S., 2008, Using orthographic projection and ArcGIS to constrain the kinematics of folding in the Central Range fault zone, Trinidad: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.
Oliver, M., and Giorgis, S., 2008, A terrain corrected, Bouguer anomaly map of central Trinidad: Looking for a crustal root beneath the neotectonic Central Range fault zone: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

Giorgis, S., Hojnowski, J., and Sharman, S., 2008, Geologic constrains on the timing and magnitude of neotectonic transpressional deformation in the Central Range fault zone, Trinidad: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs.

Sharman, K., and Giorgis, S., 2008, Paleomagnetism of the Tamana,  Chaudiere, and Point-a-Pierre Formations, Central Range fault zone, Trinidad:  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 40, n. 2, p. 68.

Hojnowski, J., Sharman, K., Giorgis, S., and Weber, J., 2007,  Neotectonic kinematics (GPS) vs. geologic kinematics of the Central Range Fault System, South American-Caribbean Plate Boundary,  Trinidad: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 39, n. 6. p.. 468.

Sharman, K., Hojnowski, J., Giorgis, S., and Weber, J., 2007, Block rotation in the Central Range Fault System, Caribbean-South American Plate Boundary, Trinidad: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 39, n. 6., p. 469.

Giorgis, S., Sirianni, R., and Tong, J., 2007,  Topographic relief as a strain marker in neotectonic settings:  the effects of isostatic compensation and erosion on transpressional models of obliquely convergent plate boundaries: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 39, n. 6., p. 183.