Trans-Amazon Drilling Project and its extension to the equatorial Atlantic Ocean

• Grant number: 24/02611-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Mobility Program: SPRINT - Projetos de pesquisa - Mobilidade
• Principal Investigator: André Oliveira Sawakuchi
• Grantee: André Oliveira Sawakuchi
• Principal researcher abroad: Paul Arthur Baker
• Institution abroad: Duke University, United States
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IGC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Cristiano Mazur Chiessi
• Associated research grant: 18/23899-2 - Trans-Amazon Drilling Project: origin and evolution of the forests, climate, and hydrology of the South American tropics, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

The Amazon/Andes of tropical South America is a key region on Earth, and its rainforests host over half of all terrestrial plant species. The forests and their biota have evolved together with the physical landscape, closely linking processes in Earth's interior with climate, surface landscapes, ecosystems, and biodiversity. The Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP) addresses the fundamental: how did Cenozoic geologic and climatic history, including uplift of the Andes, development of the Amazon fluvial system, and widening of the Atlantic Ocean, influence the origins of the Amazon rainforest and its incomparable biodiversity? The TADP, as originally conceived, has two components. Offshore, Cenozoic terrigenous sediments will be recovered by drilling the upper continental slope of the Atlantic, north of the mouth of the Amazon. On land, drilling is currently taking place in ancient sedimentary basins aligned along the modern Amazon River in sites that transect the entire near-equatorial Amazon region of Brazil, from the Andean foreland (Acre basin) nearly to the Atlantic Ocean (Marajó basin). This SPRINT Duke-FAPESP proposal will fund scientific exchanges between three of the principal investigators of the TADP in order to collect initial core data at the core repository, plan future initiatives for offshore drilling, and collaborate on mutual publications and proposals. Over the longer-term we will continue our collaboration as we undertake further field work, undertake a suite of detailed analyses of core samples, and continue to disseminate the results of this major project. (AU)