Congratulations to EPS graduate student Bari Hanafi on being awarded 2 research grants from GSA! Hanafi received the ExxonMobil/GSA Student Geoscience Grant. ExxonMobil recognized 10 of the top 30 GSA student research grant proposals with grants of US$5000 each. Hanafi was also awarded a Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Graduate Research Grant. The GSA Structural Geology and Tectonic (SGT) division recognized 5 students whose proposals show exceptionally high merit in conception and presentation in their fields.
Hanafi's research will investigate the geometry, mechanics, and kinematics of deformation associated with salt interbedded with impurities. The grant funding will allow him to conduct a series of scaled experimental models to systematically test how salt impurities affect the structural style and bulk behavior of a salt body. The modeling results will then be applied to the deformation observed in salt basins like the Orpheus basin, offshore eastern Canada.
