1. Idea Paper 4D-Earth Initiative:
A Community Geologic Model and New Scientific Initiative
for Illuminating the Evolution of the North American Continent
A new initiative and a successor to the EarthScope Program
Mike Williams, Steve Whitmeyer, Laura Webb,
Terry Pavlis, John Hole, Becky Flowers, and others
Expand the primarily 3-D geophysical focus that captured a snapshot of present day North America into the 4th dimension of time
Illuminate the crustal component that was below the resolution of much of the USArray image
Develop a Community Geologic Model to build a 4-dimensional image of the continent
Geochronology
Active-source seismology
Cyberinfrastructure

2. Idea Paper Starting Point: 4D-Earth Initiative:
A Community Geologic Model and New Scientific Initiative
for Illuminating the Evolution of the North American Continent
Starting Point:
Build a set of time slices where each
time slice is a digital model in itself,
incorporating data sets, hypotheses,
simulations, models of structure,
stratigraphy, geochronology, geomorph-
ology, petrology, lithospheric and crustal
dynamics, and high-resolution geophysics
and environmental sensing enabled by
observational networks such as those
built by EarthScope.
~ 1.00 Ga
~ 1.20 Ga
~ 0.60 Ga
~ 0.54 Ga
~ 1.40 Ga
~ 0.70 Ga
~ 1.60 Ga
~ 1.75 Ga
~ 1.50 Ga
~ 1.70 Ga
~ 1.65 Ga
~ 1.80 Ga

3. Idea Paper Next Steps: Fall, 2016 - 2017 4D-Earth Initiative:
A Community Geologic Model and New Scientific Initiative
for Illuminating the Evolution of the North American Continent
Next Steps: Fall,
Workshops to synthesize what we have learned from EarthScope and other projects on the structure and evolution of Laurentia / North America through time. Details to follow…
Identify one or two pilot time slices in which to begin to develop the community model and explore the necessary cyberinfrastructure