Continental Margins Revealed Through the MARGINS and GeoPRISMS Programs - A Recipe for Successful Community Science

Abstract:

Great scientific discoveries are rarely made in isolation, especially when they depend on a vast mix of observations, analyses, and integration across many interconnected disciplines, processes, and systems. The two+ decades of scientific research on continental margins carried out under the umbrellas of the MARGINS and GeoPRISMS Programs have demonstrated the remarkable benefits of community-based science, yielding results that far exceed the sum of individual contributions. The challenges of mobilizing community science are obvious: How to bring competitive individuals together to discuss and agree on science goals and approaches, coordinate research and cooperate in data collection and analysis, to develop a comprehensive understanding of extremely complex systems. The answer is to build a broad enthusiastic science community, facilitated by workshops, both large and small, that enable emergent conversations about the key science questions. Rotating community leadership, evolving as the science evolves, and managed by NSF’s steady guiding hand, ensures a visible pathway for all to follow. The product is a community-written Science and Implementation Plan that will guide research for decades to come. And most importantly, excellent and diverse scientists, spanning many disciplines and all levels of experience, bring a wide range of expertise, tools, approaches, and opinions, progressively advancing our knowledge of continental margin processes.

Even though the formal decadal programs are coming to an end, the well-established GeoPRISMS community, and investigations of continental margins science will plow ahead. The wealth of acquired data and observations has provided critical new insights that will help us rewrite geology textbooks, revamp approaches to societal needs and concerns, and support many more decades of great science. And most importantly, MARGINS and GeoPRISMS nurtured a large well-informed scientific community, ready to drive future investigations on continental margins and beyond. MARGINS and GeoPRISMS have changed the way that science is done.