29 US-Mexico Exchange on Cave and Karst Science and Conservation

This session welcomes submissions in fields related with cave and karst sciences applied in Mexico, with a special interest in showcasing present or past US-Mexico binational collaborations, inter- and multidisciplinary studies and community outreach projects.

Thursday, 23 April 2026
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
LMH, Meeting Room

A Multifaceted University Partnership in Geoheritage and Geoscience Education Between Brazil and the United States

Paper number: 29-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:55 PM – 3:15 PM

Authors

Abstract

Geoscientists in Brazil and the United States have common interests in many branches of the discipline, including geoscience education and geoheritage. For a decade a partnership among geoscience faculty at Arizona State University (ASU), James Madison University (JMU), and the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) has leveraged these common scholarly interests to facilitate faculty exchanges, research, and teaching in Brazil and in the United States.

Collaborative work has thus far focused on knowledge exchange and field research for development of geoheritage resources and place-based geoscience curricula in (1) karst regions in the Brazilian State of São Paulo, in Puerto Rico, and in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia, and (2) historic mining regions in São Paulo State and in the U. S. State of Arizona. Resources and curricula are under development for university teaching, K-12 teacher professional development, public geoscience literacy, and geotourism, and collaborative papers are in preparation.

USP geoscientists have made two visits to Arizona to tour and document current and former mining landscapes, to meet with ASU faculty and students, and to give scholarly presentations on geoheritage in Brazil. ASU and JMU geoscientists subsequently visited Brazil for exploration and LiDAR mapping of caves with geoheritage significance in São Paulo State in collaboration with USP geoscientists, meetings with USP faculty, and scholarly presentations on US place-based education and geoheritage at USP and at a school district partnering with USP. A further outcome is that a USP doctoral student in Brazilian mining geoheritage is now being co-mentored at ASU. Another key commonality that is being leveraged in this ongoing partnership is a history of educational collaboration with Indigenous communities in the U.S. (ASU, JMU) and with Quilombo communities in Brazil (USP).

Funding for this exchange has to date largely been provided by FAPESP, the São Paulo State Research Foundation, with some additional intramural funding from ASU and JMU. More substantial funding proposals to U. S. agencies and FAPESP are currently in review, and it is anticipated this partnership will expand in the coming years with more scholarly exchanges among USP, JMU, and ASU.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 3

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026CD-410947

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