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Intern Programs Home SURE UseIT Mentor(s): Brendan Meade (Assistant Professor)
Assessments of seismic hazard in southern California are determined, in part, by fault geometry and slip rate estimates which can be used to constrain both potential rupture areas and earthquake recurrence intervals. An accurate accounting of fault slip rate estimates is essential for characterizing not only potential earthquake activity but also the partitioning of deformation between the Pacific and North American plates. The most densely populated part of southern California is the greater Los Angeles region that lies atop a complex network of active faults. There are currently vast variations in slip rate estimates for some of the most prominent structures in this locale. Of these, the Puente Hills thrust is perhaps the most prominent in terms of the apparent slip rate discrepancy where geodetic estimates are as much as eight times larger than geodetic estimates. We're working to develop detailed fully three-dimensional block models of the Los Angeles basin area that incorporates a realistic representation of the Puente Hills Thrust but which are embedded within a more coarse regional scale model. These models will allow us to gain insight as to the exact geodetic constraints in the context of a kinematically consistent and three-dimensional fault model. Undergraduate interns will work within our research group to help develop software for the visualization and manipulation of both geodetic data and fault system models. The general focus of this project is on the development of high performance interfaces that will allow for models to be easily manipulated graphically. Previous programming experience in Matlab/C or similar language is required and previous experience building graphical user interfaces is welcome. Research Location: Cambridge, MA Institution: Harvard University Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Computer Programming (Matlab and/or C preferred) Desirable Skills/Coursework: Applied Mathematics, Geophysics General Time Span: June-August Mentor(s): Corné Kreemer and Ilya Zaliapin
An important part of seismic hazard assessment is the estimation of regional earthquake occurrence rate and the associated seismic moment rate. Unfortunately, earthquake catalogs provide poor statistical estimates about past seismic moment release. This situation can be improved if we can connect the moment rate from the observed seismicity to its long-term predictions based on geodetic and geological information. At the University of Nevada, Reno, researchers are working towards that goal. The key ingredient for this project is a map that quantifies in high detail the rate of strain accumulation in the western U.S. (particularly Nevada and California). Most of the input to a model that can create such map comes from geodetic (GPS) velocities. These data, however, do not always perfectly capture the deformation rate that we need and/or are not available everywhere. To remedy these deficiencies, any model of active deformation can benefit from additional information about active faulting. This internship project involves the acquisition, evaluation, reformatting, and input of data about active faults and their known slip rates in the Quaternary. These data come from the USGS and a variety of other sources, including SCEC. Together with the P.I. the intern will evaluate the complimentary contribution these data make compared to a model that is based on geodetic data alone, and discuss strategies on how the data can best be integrated. In addition the intern will interact with the other P.I. whose responsibility will be to take the deformation maps and use them in seismic hazard assessment modeling. Also, the intern can come along to one or two short (3-5 days) field work trips in which geodetic data will be acquired. Research Location: Reno, NV Institution: University of Nevada, Reno Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Basic UNIX. Database management (Excell and/or Access). Desirable Skills/Coursework: Fortran and/or Shell-script coding skills. GIS. General Time Span: Anytime between mid-May and mid-August Mentor(s): Sally McGill
Two interns are needed to collect GPS data at various locations in the San Bernardino Mountains, Riverside/San Bernardino Valley and high desert areas. The goal of this project is to monitor elastic strain accumulation in the vicinity of the San Andreas fault. The interns will travel throughout the San Bernardino Mountains and surrounding valleys to set up GPS equipment and monitor it throughout the day. Many of the sites are remote and will require strenuous hiking, carrying the GPS equipment as well as batteries or a solar panel. Some sites will require car camping. The interns should be in good physical condition and should enjoy hiking. The intern will have access to CSUSB’s 4WD vehicle (if they have a valid CALIFORNIA drivers license), or may be reimbursed for mileage on their own vehicles. There will be a 6-day intensive data collection campaign from Friday June 26 through Wednesday July 1, during which GPS data will be collected from numerous sites simultaneously. This will be preceded by training sessions on June 24 and 25. During the remainder of July and early August the interns will collect GPS data at other sites that were not observed during the primary campaign. Interns will also learn how to interpret GPS time series from previously collected data and to conduct one-dimensional elastic modeling of GPS date for fault slip rates in southern California. Interns may rent a dormitory room at Cal State San Bernardino if they do not live within easy commuting distance of San Bernardino. Interns will pay for the cost of the room and other living expenses out of their stipend. Research Location: San Bernardino, CA Institution: California State University, San Bernardino Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Interns must have earned grades of C or better in algebra and in trigonometry or pre-calculus and in at least one geology course. Interns must have a valid driver’s license. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Any additional math, geology or physics courses General Time Span: Mid-June through August. The best start date for the internship is June 16, 2007. The intern may start earlier, but will not have the full attention of the mentor until that date. Mentor(s): Dr Gareth Funning
The San Jacinto fault is considered one of the most dangerous structures in California, with the highest probability of failing in a magnitude >6 earthquake. In the event of such an earthquake, critical information about the stress release and frictional state of the fault must be collected by measuring the displacement of the ground in the hours to days that follow. Such measurements can be made using GPS receivers installed above survey benchmarks; knowledge of the locations and positions of such benchmarks before the earthquake is therefore essential. We propose to conduct a GPS resurvey of the survey benchmarks surrounding the San Jacinto valley and Anza segments of the San Jacinto fault. All of the sites are located within a short driving distance of the host institution, UC Riverside; many have not been surveyed for 10 years or more. Through assessment of simple computer models, the intern will assess the relative importance of the various benchmark sites for constraining earthquake slip or afterslip on segments of the San Jacinto fault, and so develop a prioritization strategy for post-earthquake response. We will also test the potential improvement to our models that may be obtained by adding additional sites, such as existing benchmarks that have not previously been used for GPS surveys, and if necessary, include them in the survey. Research Location: Riverside, CA, with fieldwork in the San Jacinto Valley, CA Institution: University of California, Riverside Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Successful candidates will be curious, motivated, and be able to work independently. A driver's license is required for the fieldwork component. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience of computing in a Unix/Linux environment would be very advantageous, as would some knowledge of programming (e.g. C, Fortran, MATLAB). A strong background in mathematics is beneficial. The project would be ideal for numerate geology students or students in mathematics/ computer science/ engineering/ physics programs who are interested in earthquakes. General Time Span: Late May to early September Mentor(s): Dr Gareth Funning
The 1994 Northridge earthquake remains the costliest earthquake disaster in US history, occurring on a blind thrust fault within the heavily developed San Fernando Valley. Surface conditions are ideal to study the displacement due to the earthquake ('coseismic deformation') and the adjustment of the crust in its aftermath ('postseismic deformation') with InSAR, a remote sensing technique that allows the measurement of the movement of the ground from space. Previous studies of the earthquake have used very few interferograms in order to study this deformation; by using the full archive of data from multiple satellites, we hope to improve upon these studies, particularly for the postseismic deformation, which should show variations in time. The successful applicant will use all available data covering the San Fernando Valley to assess, and distinguish between the displacement of the ground before, during and after the earthquake. InSAR data will be used to constrain the spatial pattern of surface displacements, and their changes through time; GPS data will be used to provide additional constrains on horizontal displacements and the timing of deformation. Simple computer models will be used to estimate the fault slip during the earthquake and to assess the applicability of the various mechanisms for postseismic deformation (e.g. transient afterslip, viscous relaxation in the lower crust) to that observed in the area. The latter information could provide important new information on the behavior (rheology) of the lower crust in the Los Angeles area when placed under stress. The successful applicant may also be able to participate in any field GPS surveys undertaken at UCR in the summer. Additional reading: A Donnellan, J W Parker, G Peltzer, Combined GPS and InSAR Models of Postseismic Deformation from the Northridge Earthquake, Pure Appl. Geophys., 159, 2261–2270, 2002. G J Funning, B Parsons, T J Wright, J A Jackson and E J Fielding. Surface displacements and source parameters of the 2003 Bam, Iran earthquake from Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar imagery, J. Geophys. Res., 110, B09406, doi:10.1029/2004JB003338, 2005. D Massonnet and K Feigl. Radar interferometry and its application to changes in the earth's surface. Rev. Geophys., 36, 441-500, 1998. Research Location: Riverside, CA Institution: University of California, Riverside Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: The project will be computer-based, and so experience of computing in a Unix/Linux environment and some knowledge of programming (e.g. C, Fortran, MATLAB) will be important. In addition, the successful candidate will be curious, motivated, and be able to work independently. Desirable Skills/Coursework: A strong grounding in mathematics and/or statistics would be beneficial, as would experience of using GIS/visualization software. The project would be ideal for numerate geology students or students in mathematics/ computer science/ engineering/ physics programs who are interested in earthquakes. General Time Span: Late May to early September Mentor(s): Yolanda Gil, USC/CS and USC/ISI
This project will offer two internships. One internship is to develop a user-centered environment to create workflows that combine models for estimating seismic hazard and are consistent with the requirements of those models. The work would involve developing ontologies for seismic hazard estimation using the W3C OWL and RDF standards. An initial exploration of this project was done a few summers back by a CMU undergraduate intern who was a double CS and Physics major, but for this internship only a basic CS background is required. Another internship is to develop an execution environment for computational experimentation to coordinate the execution of complex models for seismic hazard analysis from a very simple specification represented as a distributed workflow. The work would involve extensions to existing workflow creation and execution systems to use state of the art models for seismic hazard estimation as well as integration with web service technologies. A strong CS background is required. Research Location: Marina del Rey, CA Institution: USC Information Sciences Institute Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: One internship requires a basic CS background. Another requires a strong CS background, as specified in the project description. Desirable Skills/Coursework: AI, distributed systems. General Time Span: Preferrably July 8 through early September. Mentor(s): Elizabeth Cochran (University of California, Riverside) and Jesse Lawrence (Stanford University)
We are developing a distributed computing seismic network that reduces the infrastructure costs associated with real-time centralized computing networks. We plan to complement traditional strong motion seismic networks with networks of internet-ready laptops and desktops that are equipped with internal and peripheral accelerometers, respectively. This wealth of strong-motion data could be exploited for use in an early-warning network in the densely populated, high seismic risk regions of the greater Los Angeles Basin and the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, we have created a set of programs to access, record, and display the accelerometer data on several models of Apple laptops; however, methods for accessing the accelerometer data in IBM, HP, and Acer laptops still need to be developed. We plan to incorporate all available sensor types into a universal program available for download to the public. In addition, we will begin work on USB accelerometer sensor development to be used with desktop computers. Research Location: Riverside, CA Institution: University of California, Riverside Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: A good background in computer programming is required, especially knowledge of C and/or Fortran. Additional knowledge in distributed computing and/or computer hardware, such as USB interfacing, is a plus. Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Starting June 2008 or before. Mentor(s): Oliver Boyd, Rob Williams, and Steve Hartzell
In 1811-1812, a series of three major earthquakes struck the Central United States in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Having magnitudes near 7.5 and being located within the relatively stable interior of the North American Continent, these events produced widespread strong shaking. If these events were to occur today, there would be substantial devastation. To better understand this threat and in preparation for the upcoming bicentennial, the US Geological Survey is planning to produce sophisticated numerical simulations of earthquake rupture and seismic wave propagation due to a repeat of these events. To kick off this effort, the USGS will mentor an intern in the development and construction of a community seismic velocity model for use in these numerical simulations. The intern will have the opportunity to learn about seismic hazards and risk, numerical simulation of seismic wave propagation and various methods for deriving subsurface velocities. The intern will be expected to locate and bring together in a standard format existing studies of seismic velocity in the region. He/she should have good communication and computer skills and a basic knowledge of geology. Research Location: Memphis, TN Institution: United States Geological Survey Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Good computer and communication skills. Introduction to Geology Desirable Skills/Coursework: UNIX experience/scripting in any language Structural geology Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Introduction to Geophysics General Time Span: Summer, 2008 Mentor(s): Rowena Lohman
The intern will learn how to search for, download, and process InSAR data from a variety of satellites including ALOS, ERS 1 & 2, ENVISAT, etc. The intern will process data for a single area in Southern California and will explore the use of time series in order to evaluate deformation in the region. They will also compare their results to existing GPS observations within their target area. Research Location: Cornell Institution: Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with Linux, environment and basic concepts about programming. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience with Matlab, Perl or Python. Knowledge about Southern California tectonic setting. General Time Span: Flexible Mentor(s): Rowena Lohman
The intern will set up a framework for assessing whether particular campaign GPS benchmarks should be reoccupied based on a variety of criteria. They will begin with a basic estimate on the strain rate at each site based on the crustal velocity model, and will determine how much deformation has built up since the last occupation of the site. This step will involve only basic skills of fitting a line to data. 2nd, they will use models of nearby faults, in conjunction with the location of nearby continuous GPS sites, to determine which campaign sites would add the most information about the Southern California network of faults. Research Location: Cornell Institution: Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Computer skills: Linux environment, Matlab, Perl, Python, Google Earth kml coding, and ability to set up wikipedia page with results. Some knowledge of basics of linear algebra and inverse theory (i.e., how to fit a line to data points). Desirable Skills/Coursework: Higher-level understanding of inverse theory, familiarity with Southern California tectonic setting. General Time Span: Flexible Mentor(s): Prof. Thorsten Becker Mr. Iain Bailey
Seismic activity is recorded in earthquake catalogs, which are easily accessible and form the foundation of numerous scientific studies, such as attempts to identify deterministic patterns in earthquake occurrence. However, it is well known that even the best published catalogs are highly uneven in space and time, and strongly affected by imperfect seismometer distributions and uncertainties about the crust's velocity structure, to name a few. It is therefore crucial to obtain and convey a solid, quantitative understanding of regional catalog reliability and robustness to students and researchers alike. To this end, we propose to use the new Solid Earth Research and Teaching Environment (SEATREE, http://geosys.usc.edu/projects/seatree/) as a user-friendly computing platform to establish new seismology teaching modules. SEATREE implements an advanced, object-oriented and transparent way of using research tools at all user levels, from undergraduate to post-graduate level. With assistance from Becker and Bailey, the intern will assemble and implement currently used earthquake inversion tools (e.g. HASH, FPFIT, HypoDD) and Earth Science databases (e.g. SCEC network recordings and velocity model). This machinery will be incorporated into the existing SEATREE graphical user interface and infrastructure by means of writing Python computer language scripts. SEATREE is designed to facilitate such extensions and most of the work will be spent on the fun, science-near aspects. The goal is to assemble flexible computational modules that can be used to interactively perform event relocations, focal mechanism inversion, etc. using realistic datasets. By changing input parameters such as event/station distribution and Earth structure models, and evaluating graphically the predicted catalogs characteristics, new insights into local network performance and the reliability of catalog based inferences will be gained. The tools can be used for actual research as well as teaching purposes because the SEATREE design allows "looking under the hood" as well as "point and click", intuitive learning. The student will gain an appreciation for the nature and origin of crustal seismicity, inverse theory, and scientific data analysis. She/he will use learn advanced, object-oriented programming techniques and experience the fun of python programming. The final product will be shared openly on the web within the SEATREE framework and made available to all interested students, teachers, and researchers in the field. Research Location: USC Institution: Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Some exposure to math, physics, and computing would be helpful. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Knowledge of LINUX or OS-X, and python. An intro Earth science class. Knowledge of Fortran and/or C. General Time Span: 2 months Mentor(s): Prof. Becker and Schorlemmer This could be a SURE or ACCESS project.
During earthquakes, crustal rocks deform by brittle failure and frictional sliding. However, the holy grail, a general constitutive law that fully describes the physics of faulting, and fault system behavior, has remained elusive. One of the challenges for geophysicists and geologists is the relative paucity of data because comprehensive, digitally instrumented earthquake recordings are only available for the last few decades. This motivates the study of small-scale rock samples and analog materials in the laboratory where frictional sliding, brittle failure, and fault network seismicity can be studied and measured in a controlled environment. In particular, mini-earthquake events, called acoustic emissions (AEs), are observed during cataclastic failure of rocks due to micro cracking in the rock sample. AE generated waves can be recorded with piezo-electrical crystals, and such studies are common place in engineering for failure analysis. However, there are several technical challenges for the rock mechanics community that currently limit the full exploration of AEs as analogs for earthquakes. Some of the issues are due to the fact that hundreds of AEs need to be recorded per second at up to 1MHz frequencies to allow true wave form analysis; this implies interesting technical challenges. We propose to have two interns contribute to USC Geophysics' efforts to establish a new, high-end acoustic emission (AE) recording system that surpasses those commonly available by means of a high throughput, cluster-computing based, state of the art data collection system. We have funds available to build such a system from scratch, and one of the interns is to assemble and connect piezo-electric transducers, pre-amplifiers, and high end digital/analog PCI boards into a portable collection system. The other undergraduate is to implement the hardware drivers using the Labview instrument controlling software and to develop algorithms to detect AEs, make sure full wave forms are saved with adequate sampling, perform AE hypocenter inversions, and try to infer micro focal mechanisms using S and P wave type recording. We will design the AE collection system such that it can be used on our table top analog test setups, as well as at other institution's rock mechanics laboratories. This project is an exciting combination of physics, engineering, material science and computing and the interns will proceed in close collaboration with USC faculty Becker and Schorlemmer. Research Location: USC Institution: Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: some engineering or physics background (either eletrical, signal analysis or computing) Desirable Skills/Coursework: signal processing LINUX and/or Labview software familiarity General Time Span: 2 months Mentor(s): David Bowman
A key aspect of seismic hazard evaluation is predicting the path of earthquake rupture on complex fault systems. This point has been emphasized by earthquakes such as the 1992 Landers, the 1999 Hector Mine, 2001 Kokoxili, Tibet, and the 2002 Denali Fault events, which all took place on “branched fault” systems. In all of these cases, a point of particular interest has been to explain why ruptures took one branch while abandoning another. We are searching for a SCEC Intern conduct computer modeling of the rupture dynamics of branched faults. Under the guidance of D. Oglesby (UCR) and D. Bowman (CSUF), the SCEC intern will construct, run, and analyze numerical models under a variety of assumptions about fault geometry and material properties. The suggested models will break new ground in dynamic modeling, but should be accessible to a motivated and technically competent undergraduate in the physical sciences. Over the period of this funded research, we plan to investigate the dynamics of fault systems such as: * Multiple fault branches intersecting at a single line—which path is most likely, and how does rupture on one segment affect slip on neighboring segments? * Fault branches that are separated by varying gaps—is the most likely branch the same if a gap is present for all branch segments? * Fault branches where there is a damage zone in or near the branch region. In all cases, we will compare our results with similar observed fault systems in nature. Research Location: Institution: California State University, Fullerton Number of Interns Needed: Required Skills/Coursework: Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Mentor(s): Professor Lisa Grant Ludwig Visiting Professor James Brune Postdoc Sinan Akciz
We seek two enthusiastic interns to work together in the office and the field to 1) provide higher precision locations for previously mapped precariously balanced rocks, and 2) to help test a hypothesis about the erosion and “renewal” mechanisms for generating precariously balanced rocks. Reconnaissance surveys have located hundreds of precariously balanced rocks in Southern California in the last decade, and a number of studies are using them to place constraints on seismic hazard estimates (e.g., Brune et al. 2007, Purvance et al 2007). To make full use of the rocks we need to accurately locate them using Google Earth or similar tool, and determine the timescale and mechanisms for creating and exposing – i.e. renewing - these rocks. Since most of the rocks were originally corestones that have been exposed by erosion of decomposed granite (grus), it is important to understand the effect of erosion rate on the distribution of such rocks. A correlation that has been suggested by reconnaissance surveys in Nevada and Eastern California is that in many areas where there are zones with numerous precarious rocks next to zones where rocks have obviously been knocked down, and that the precarious rocks tend to appear on the steeper slopes where the erosion rate is presumably faster. This suggests that the rocks on older surfaces may have been knocked down by one or more early large earthquakes, and that the remaining precarious rocks have been exposed after the last earthquake by a more rapid erosion rate. Rapid erosion rate on the steep slope at the edge of a stream channel has exposed precarious rocks, whereas on the gentler slope away from the stream channel the rocks appear to have been shaken down. If true, then measurement of the erosion rate adjacent to the stream channel could be used to constrain time since the last strong earthquake. Since we now have methods of dating erosion rates through CRN, understanding this process can provide important information for about seismic hazard and random background earthquakes. The correlation of precariously balanced rocks with slope, and presumably erosion rate, has not been documented in Southern California. Most of the obvious examples to date have been found in Nevada and Eastern California, where the repeat times for large earthquakes are much greater than in Southern California. We posit that such a correlation exists in Southern California. We propose to supervise a pair of interns to investigate this possibility in Southern California. Research Location: UC Irvine and field work in southern California Institution: Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Ability to hike and tolerate summer heat for 5-10 days of field work in the Peninsular Ranges of southern California. Introductory physical geology. Ability to read topographic maps. Familiarity with Google Earth, or ability to learn quickly. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Coursework in geomorphology or landscape evolution or Quaternary geology or soil science. General Time Span: Summer 2008. Prefer mid-June to mid-September. For more information contact: SCEC Education Programs Office of Experiential Learning & Career Advancement internships@scec.org 213-821-6340 |
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