Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received a $490,176 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), awarded October 1, 2025, with completion targeted for August 31, 2027. This collaborative research initiative applies novel quantitative methodologies to link fold-thrust belt activity in the Canadian Rocky Mountains to depositional responses in the adjacent Alberta foreland basin. The project delivers integrated geological analysis coupling bedrock low-temperature thermochronology and thermokinematic modeling within the fold-thrust belt with detrital thermochronology, subsidence curves, and provenance analysis in the basin system. Primary technical products include zircon fission-track and zircon (U-Th)/He analysis across an orogen-perpendicular sampling transect, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology data, and sediment accumulation curves constructed from stratigraphic sections and maximum depositional age determinations.

Beyond research deliverables, the grant funds human capital and knowledge dissemination products, including training of undergraduate and graduate students, facilitation of U.S.-Canadian geoscientist collaborations, and development of publicly available training modules documenting the technical methods employed. These educational and methodological outputs position the research findings as a resource for broader adoption by the geoscience research community, supporting improved interpretation of sedimentary basin archives and enhanced understanding of long-term mountain building and climatic processes.