Will Amidon Receives NSF Support for Research

MIDDLEBURY, Vt — Assistant Professor of Geology Will Amidon has received support from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Testing models of passive margin rejuvenation in the eastern U.S.” Amidon and a collaborator at the State University of New York Plattsburgh received a three-year grant to work on understanding mountain uplift and erosion over the last 100 million years (Myr) in the northeastern United States. The work addresses the fundamental question of why mountains still exist in the northeastern U.S. despite more than 300 Myr since that last major tectonic collision. One idea is that the Northeast has experienced subtle tectonic events in the last 100 Myr which were strong enough to grow mountains, but difficult to detect through conventional methods. Seven Middlebury undergraduates will be working with Will on this project.