The COSA and SOSA Projects

Geoscientists from the University of Arizona, ExxonMobil Exploration Company and ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company are collaborating on the COSA project (Convergent Orogenic Systems Analysis).  COSA focuses on understanding the development of  Earth’s Cordilleran style orogenic belts in the central Andes of northwestern Argentina and northern Chile: from the trench to the foreland, from the mantle to the clouds. A complimentary second project, SOSA (Sevier Orogenic Systems Analysis), focuses on the western North American Cordilleran foreland region. Both projects are funded by ExxonMobil and involve thirty-one Department of Geosciences faculty, postdoctoral students, and graduate students.

The COSA and SOSA projects involve fundamental research in structural geology and kinematic analysis, basin analysis, paleoaltimetry, GPS geodesy, modern Andean foreland basin studies, igneous petrology, geochronology, thermochronology, climate modeling, and geodynamic modeling. UA broadband seismologists are collaborating on parallel projects in the central Andes and in western Wyoming. The COSA and SOSA projects bring together diverse experts and students, with complementary databases and scientific approaches, to develop a holistic model for how Cordilleran orogenic belts operate.