The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (LIBRE) Continental Scientific Drilling Project
ACRONYM
LIBRE
Title
The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (LIBRE) Continental Scientific Drilling Project
General information
As Earth's atmospheric temperatures and human populations increase, more people are becoming vulnerable to natural and human-induced disasters. This is particularly true in Central America, where the growing human population is experiencing climate
extreme and the region is susceptible to a multitude of geological hazards. Instrumental and historical data from the region are insufficient to document past changes in these hazards, a necessary first step for mitigating future risks. Long, continuous, well-resolved geological records can provide a window into past climate, tectonic, and environmental changes. Combined with seismic monitoring, the data can provide improved assessment for mitigating future risk in the region. The Lake Izabal Basin (LIB) in eastern Guatemala contains the longest known continental records of tectonics, climate, and environmental change in the northern Neotropics. The basin is a pull-apart depression that developed along the North American and Caribbean plate boundary ~12 Myr ago and contains > 4 km of sediment. The basins position along a plate boundary and its long sediment record make it an ideal location for an ICDP project.
The Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (LIBRE) project focuses on exploring the tetonic evolution of the basin and its long sediment record. This information is key to testing hypotheses on: 1) tectonic deformation and earthquake history along the plate boundary; 2) the timing and causes of volcanism from the Central American Volcanic Arc; and 3) hydroclimatic, ecologic, and geomicrobiological responses to different climate states. This leads to overall objectives behind the hypotheses that are to 1) Explore the seismo-tectonic evolution and associated hazards of plate boundary fault systems. The LIB presents a unique opportunity to study faulting processes from past and present earthquakes to long-term plate boundary motion.
2) Investigate the volcanic history of the Central American Volcanic Arc and associated hazards. Long sediment cores from the LIB can provide long-term Quaternary and Neogene information to evaluate systematic changes in the frequency of volcanic activity, compositional variations through time, and possible external controls on volcanic activity.
3) Reconstructing neotropical paleoclimate from the Miocene to present. The LIB offers the opportunity to study climate evolution during the late Miocene, Pliocene and through the entire Quaternary, allowing the investigation of hydroclimate response to several climate forcings.
4) Understand the biogeographic patterns and ecological processes in the northern Neotropics from the Miocene to present. Long sediment records from the LIB offer the opportunity to study how closure of the Central American Seaway influenced the biogeography of the Neotropics. Highly-resolved Quaternary records will also provide the opportunity to investigate the role of the region in maintaining biodiversity during drier time periods and the relationships between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and sea level variability.
5) Unravel the diversity and abundance of the deep biosphere in the Lake Izabal sediment record. The LIB offers a unique opportunity to study the community composition of the continental deep biosphere and provide key insights into the abundance of microbial cells and life at depth.
The drilling plan involves: i) drilling and coring a mater borehole to 1300 m; ii) coring two sites within Lake Izabal to a depth of 750 and 1000 m, respectively. Combined, the cores will provide a record from ~8 Ma to the present; and iii) drilling six boreholes to a depth of 200 m and instrument them with seismometers and strainmeters. The goals of the project are threefold. First we will collect a sediment record from the Miocene to the present, providing an opportunity to investigate different Earth System processes across multiple timescales. Second, we will establish a plate boundary observatory, providing an opportuntiy to study several fundamental problems in tectonics and earthquake physics. Lastly, the project provides the opportunity to increase societal awareness of geosciences in Guatemala, a country that is faced with several hazards yet knowledge on these is generally lacking.
Start
January, 2026
End
December, 2030
Funding (total)
6000000
Funding (GEOMAR)
300000
Funding body / Programme
-
DFG
/ SPP ICDP
Coordination
Missouri State University, USA
Contact
Partners
Missouri State University, USA
