|
|
About SCEC |
Major Projects & Research |
Technical Resources |
Education & Preparedness |
|
Intern Programs Home SURE UseIT Mentor(s): Sally McGill
(Note: This description was revised on 1/21/11. The trenching project has been rescheduled from May to August). Interns selected for this project will participate in two different projects: (1) (during July) collection and interpretation of GPS data to monitor strain accumulation across the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults, and (2) (during August) studying prehistoric earthquakes on the northern San Jacinto fault recorded in sedimentary layers exposed in a trench across the fault near Hemet. Both projects require extensive field work, much of which will occur in hot weather. Expect long days while we are doing field work. For the GPS data collection, interns will travel in pairs 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 and/or a solar panel. Most sites will require car camping. The interns should be in good physical condition and should enjoy hiking. Interns will have access to CSUSB’s 4WD vehicle for travel to field sites(if they have a valid CALIFORNIA driver’s license), or may be reimbursed for mileage on their own vehicles. Interns will help to prepare the GPS equipment in early July. A 3-day GPS training program will be held July 11-13 for the interns and other students and high school teachers who will participate in the data collection. Data collection will be from July 14-20, with the remainder of July spent interpreting the data and creating a poster of GPS results. During this time, interns will learn how to interpret GPS time series from previously collected data and to conduct one-dimensional elastic modeling of GPS data for fault slip rates in southern California. The San Jacinto fault trenching will take place in early August. Field work will include scraping trench walls, setting up string grids, etching contacts and faults in the trench wall with a probe or nail and photographing each panel of the grid. Conditions in the trench will be muddy. Office work will continue into mid-August and will include rectifying the photographs in Adobe Photoshop, combining them into a mosaic that covers the whole trench, drawing final interpretations on the photomosaics and creating a poster presenting the interpretation of prehistoric earthquakes exposed in the trench. All interns will participate in the field work for both projects (if their school schedule permits) and will have a choice of which project to focus on for their poster presentation at the SCEC meeting. For interns who do not live within easy commuting distance of San Bernardino I will post an email announcement on our campus email soliciting faculty and staff who have a room to rent. Interns will pay for rent and other living expenses out of their stipend. Research Location: San Bernardino and vicinity Institution: California State University, San Bernardino Number of Interns Needed: at least 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Trigonometry, Introductory Geology, Good physical condition, Willingness to hike in steep terrain in hot weather. At least ONE of the two interns should have a California driver's license (or own a high-clearance vehicle that they are willing to drive to field sites, with mileage reimbursement). Desirable Skills/Coursework: Structural Geology, Tectonics, and/or Neotectonics. California driver's license General Time Span: All applicants MUST be available July 11-29. Preferred start date is June 27 or July 5, 2011. Preferred end-date is Aug 19 or 26, 2011. Mentor(s): Andy Barth, Indiana University~Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN; Scott Paterson, University of Southern California
Improving models of crustal structure is necessary to accurate calculation of earthquake hypocenters, and to understanding how crustal architecture influenced the development of faults in southern California. The summer intern will use a tilted crustal cross section exposed in the eastern Transverse Ranges to build a model of crustal structure along the east side of the southern San Andreas fault. The project will begin with field work along sampling transects through a tilted crustal section in the Little San Bernardino Mountains, describing and sampling key rock units. Following fieldwork, the intern will be responsible for carrying out laboratory measurements of rock density, magnetic susceptibility and anisotropy, and radiogenic heat production, and use computer modeling to construct images of crustal seismic velocity variations. The summer intern should have a background in petrology and/or geochemistry, and enjoy both laboratory work and field work in mountainous terrain. Experience in GIS would be a plus. This project will contribute to the SCEC Unified Structural Representation project in the development of a 3D model of Earth structure in southern California. Research Location: California and Indiana Institution: Indiana University Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Mineralogy, Petrology or Geochemistry Desirable Skills/Coursework: Excel, GIS General Time Span: Field work best done in early May 2011. Lab work in summer 2011. Mentor(s): William Bull (professor emeritus, University of Arizona)
Dating prehistoric earthquakes: Two distinctly different ways of dating the times prehistoric earthquakes on the southern San Andreas fault are available. The standard way is stratigraphic — dig a trench across a fault scarp and radiocarbon date strata deposited before or after the surface rupture. My way is geomorphic — date the time of the event itself with coseismic rockfalls. We will use my 22 years of doing this in New Zealand, California, and Sweden. Matching the intern's area of interest: Depending on the interests and skills of the intern, I envision two types of work: 1) Collection of data about times and sizes of rockfalls and other landslides in the Transverse Ranges of southern California. 2) Computer modeling of times of earthquakes, and creation of maps depicting how the intensity of seismic shaking decreases away from an epicenter of a prehistoric earthquake. Data collection comes before analysis. An intern with 1) as a main interest will help collect a data base that consists of the sizes of lichens growing on rockfall blocks on steep hillsides sensitive to seismic shaking. Finding sites that meet our stringent requirements means that you should expect to hike and camp in some pretty rugged mountains. Even if the intern has 2) as a main interest, I expect she or he to do some field work in 2011 at a training site in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles. We need many digital-caliper measurements, and your collecting some of them is the best way to understand the advantages and limitations of this way of studying earthquakes of the past 1,000 years. Your data analysis will assess the quality of initial results and where additional field data is needed. Research Location: Research Locations: Work type 1) is in the mountains of southern California. Work type 2) can be at the University of Arizona, or at a southern California school. Institution: Geosciences Department, University of Arizona Number of Interns Needed: Number of Interns Needed: 1 or possibly 2 depending on funding. Required Skills/Coursework: Required Skills: Should enjoy backpacking and camping, and have an interest in mountain landscapes and be curious about the origins of hills and streams. Easily accessible sites will involve car camping. Basic reconnaissance and/or working at remote sites will involve fairly strenuous hikes. Expect to camp for several days near where we measure the largest lichen on each rockfall block and/or the outcrop joint faces from which rockfalls were detached by seismic shaking. Valid drivers license. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Desirable Skills/Coursework: Upper Division basic courses in subjects such as geomorphology, neotectonics, and structural geology with an emphasis on southern California. Computer skills, after the field studies provide the essential data, include analysis of probability density plots of the lichen-size peaks that record individual rockfall events at a site, and contouring of these data for many sites in a region to create a map depicting changes in seismic-shaking intensity with distance away from the San Andreas fault. These will be first ever maps revealing patterns of seismic shaking for prehistoric San Andreas fault earthquakes. General Time Span: Work Schedule: 1- to 2-week long field trips in the spring, summer and fall of 2011. Flexible timing, so can fit the schedule of the intern. No field work during the winter months because of short days and snow covering the rockfall blocks we seek to date. Might start as early as the student's spring break in March 2011 by making recon hikes to assess lower altitude talus slopes as possible sites to collect data. Mentor(s): Sarah Brownlee, Bradley Hacker
Seismic anisotropy occurs when seismic waves travel faster in one direction than in another, and can have a number of causes. Understanding the causes and distribution of seismic anisotropy in the lower crust of southern California will help in the interpretation of seismic data from this region, including developing a better crustal model. The main goal of this research project is to predict the magnitude and orientation of seismic anisotropy by measuring samples of the lower crust that are now at the surface. To do this we use electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to measure crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) of minerals in samples of the Pelona Schist, which underplates much of southern California. We combine the measured CPOs with the mineral elastic constants to calculate the seismic velocities in all directions of the rock. We are looking for one intern to help collect and analyze this data. The intern will assist in collecting new samples on a 2-3 day field trip. This will involve camping and a moderate amount of hiking. The intern will also learn how to operate a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and make EBSD measurements, as well as how to calculate seismic anisotropy from EBSD data. Together, we will interpret the results of the measurements and calculations in terms of what they mean for the seismic anisotropy of the lower crust of southern California. Research Location: UCSB Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Mineralogy, Petrology Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Late June to early August Mentor(s): David Oglesby (University of California, Riverside) James Dolan (University of Southern California)
The intersection of the San Andreas, San Jacinto, and Cucamonga faults in Southern California is quite geometrically complex, and the true fault geometry is not well constrained; it is not clear which faults cut other faults, and where the various faults terminate. This issue is of great scientific and practical importance: The geometry of the fault intersection can lead to complex stress interactions between the fault segments, and thus can have a controlling influence on whether an earthquake terminates at the intersection, or can propagate through, leading to a larger earthquake. Our project is to numerically model earthquakes in the vicinity of this fault intersection under a variety of different assumptions about the fault intersection geometry. In this way, we will be able to evaluate the likelihood of fault-to-fault rupture propagation, and work toward more realistic estimates of seismic hazard in the region. The numerical models will utilize the dynamic 3D finite element method, which requires the construction of a finite element mesh that accurately represents the complex fault geometry. Currently, there exists no interface between our finite element software and the mesh generator software. The main task of the intern will be to construct such an interface so that the realistic fault geometry may be generated in the meshing software, and then input into the finite element code. After completing the interface, the intern will help set up and run the dynamic faulting models, and analyze the results. Research Location: University of California, Riverside Institution: University of California, Riverside Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Extensive programming skills Coursework in elementary physics (forces, vectors) Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience in C++ programming language Experience in computational programming Coursework in geophysics/seismology General Time Span: June - September 2011 (start and end times flexible depending on intern's college schedule) Mentor(s): David Oglesby (University of California, Riverside) David Bowman (California State University, Fullerton)
In nature, faults are rarely observed to be the simple planar structures that they are often approximated to be in numerical and theoretical models. Faults are complex three-dimensional structures that have changes in orientation, gaps, and branches. Predicting the behavior of earthquake rupture when it encounters a zone of geometrical complexity is of great importance, because the ground shaking depends critically on whether the rupture stops at the zone, and which rupture path it takes if it continues. In the present study, we plan to use numerical (finite element) models to investigate the behavior of an earthquake on a fault that branches into multiple segments near the free surface. We hope to indicate which branches are more likely for rupture to take, the partitioning of slip is between those branches, and the effects of stress interactions between the branches. The intern in this project will first be given instruction on the basics of earthquake physics and numerical modeling, and will then take the lead in setting up, running, and analyzing the results of the numerical models. The results will have important implications for predicting ground motion and earthquake hazard in regions with multiply branched faults. Research Location: University of California, Riverside Institution: University of California, Riverside Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Elementary programming skills Coursework in elementary physics (forces, vectors) Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience in computational programming Coursework in geophysics/seismology General Time Span: June-September 2011 (timing flexible) Mentor(s): John N. Louie, Professor Roxanna Frary and Annie Kell-Hills, PhD students
This project is examining the effects of spatial heterogeneity of site conditions on predicted ground motions by completing several tests: 1. An examination of the spatial statistics of Vs100 (average shear velocity to 100 m depth), Z0.5 (depth at which shear velocity rises to 0.5 km/s), and other metrics that can be derived from the data set of prior Vs(Z) measurements. 2. Development of a method to augment the SCEC CVM with a stochastic geotechnical layer, holding to the spatial statistics of local measurements, and transfer of this method to the group maintaining the CVM. SCEC Interns will help here by preparing trial geotechnical maps with alternative statistical inputs. 3. Set-up and running of Olsen’s (2000) LA Basin scenarios with stochastic geotechnical layers, including verification of consistency with Olsen’s results, and sensitivity tests of highly variable geotechnical layers against smooth geotechnical properties. 4. Examination of the spatial statistics of the ground motions output from the stochastic-geotechnical scenarios. SCEC Interns will help the graduate students examine the trial results. 5. Presentation of results at SCEC workshops and the SCEC Annual Meeting (with Intern presentations), and journal publication. Research Location: Reno Institution: University of Nevada, Reno Number of Interns Needed: 1 or 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Structural Geology, 2 semesters of Physics, Vector Calculus. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Object-oriented programming language. UNIX scripts, python. Course in Geophysics. General Time Span: 11 weeks between May 16 and August 19. Mentor(s): James P. Evans, main project researcher Jerry Fairley, Hydrogeologist Rebekah Wood, Graduate student Nate Onderdonk (CSULB), co-mentor
The Aqua Caliente hot springs, and several other small springs, lie along the trace of the Elsinore fault. In conjunction with a graduate student working on the hydrothermal alteration and deformation in the rocks adjancent to the fault, the undergraduate intern will collect time series data on water conditions, as well as systematically sample and analize the water chemistry from the springs. The objectives of the project are to determine the baseline water chemistry of the springs, and to determine if there are any changes associated with small swarms of earthquakes that occur 3-5 km away. Research Location: Utah, southern California, Idaho Institution: Utah State University Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Sophomore or higher level of geology course work [Earth History, Physical Geology at a minimum] and some basic class in geochemistry or environmental geochemistry. Must be able to travel to southern California to collect samples and install instruments. Field work is not strenous, but the site will be > 100°F. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Upper division coursework or experience in geosciences a plus. Any experience in research, and coursework in cognate classes [Math, Statistics] will be helpful. Must be concientious with respect to handling water samples, and field analytical tools, including data loggers. General Time Span: Core of project can be approximately 8 -10 weeks. Mentor(s): Joann Stock, Egill Hauksson
The Salton Seismic Imaging Project, or SSIP, is a large-scale active source seismic study of southeastern California, taking place in Feb and March 2011. Its controlled seismic shots will be recorded by an array of temporarily deployed seismometers between San Diego and the Colorado River, and from Palm Springs to the Mexican border. The shots will also be detected at permanent seismic stations in southern California. We seek one or two SCEC interns to use a subset of the shots and arrivals at Southern California Seismic Network stations, to evaluate how the shots were recorded across the permanent network, pick arrivals from the waveforms, and use these to test and refine the 3D seismic velocity model for part of the region. The exact area to be studied will be chosen after the SSIP active source experiment is finished but may include, for example, part of the eastern Peninsular ranges or the western side of the Salton trough. Research Location: California Institute of Technology Institution: California Institute of Technology Number of Interns Needed: 1 or 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Coursework in elementary physics (forces, vectors) and some calculus or other college level math class. Some experience with computer applications such as Matlab or similar software for scientific data analysis. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Background or course work in geology, geophysics, or environmental science. Some programming or scripting experience with modifying/writing and using applications/scripts on LINUX or UNIX computers for scientific data analysis a plus. General Time Span: June-August 2011 Mentor(s): Greg Beroza (Stanford) Bill Ellsworth (US Geological Survey) David Shelly (US Geological Survey) Justin Rubinstein (US Geological Survey)
This internship would use recordings of seismic waves (seismograms) to develop a new kind of earthquake catalog for the central San Andreas Fault. Many earthquakes on this part of the fault occur as repeating ruptures of the same fault area and produce nearly identical waveforms. The intern would work with Greg Beroza (Stanford), and Bill Ellsworth, Justin Rubinstein and David Shelly (USGS Menlo Park) to build a catalog based on the similarity of waveforms instead of the traditional detection/location approach. The resulting catalog will be used to explore two research questions (two interns would be welcome on this project). One project will focus on quantifying and understanding the aftershock behavior of repeating earthquakes. A second project will explore the properties of sequences of repeating earthquakes, and work towards understanding the behavior of these events. Good computer skills are a big plus for this internship. There is also the opportunity for interns to present their work at the Southern California Earthquake Center meeting in Palm Springs in September. Research Location: Stanford University/USGS Menlo Park Institution: Stanford University Number of Interns Needed: up to 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Good computer skills would be very helpful Desirable Skills/Coursework: Intro Seismology would be helpful Signal processing would be helpful, but is not necessary General Time Span: Late June for a period of 8-10 weeks Mentor(s): Marleen Nyst (RMS), Wayne Thatcher (USGS)
Traditionally, Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) studies have been based on earthquake and paleoseismic observations. Recent research focuses on the inclusion of space-geodetic date (like GPS and INSAR) in PSHA work, mainly to contribute to estimates of slip rates on active faults, but also to complement present-day crustal deformation rates that are purely based on earthquake data. Southern California is monitored by a dense network of GPS stations, producing a high resolution velocity field of the Earth’s surface. One way of translating this velocity field into crustal deformation parameters that can be used in PSHA is the ‘block model’. In the block model the crust is parameterized as a number of elastically deforming blocks, bounded by surfaces that represent the major active faults. A number of these block models has been published for Southern California. Based on differences in underlying methods and assumptions they produce significant differences in terms of fault slip rates, geometry of the building blocks and location of the faults. The work proposed here will be executed at the Newark, California, based office of Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS), a company that develops catastrophe risk models for the insurance industry. The project focuses on the impact of the inclusion of space-geodetic observations, GPS and perhaps INSAR data, on earthquake risk in Southern California. Earthquake risk combines earthquake hazard and building vulnerability to estimate the probable damage or loss. The first part of the project encompasses the translation of the main existing block models into PSHA hazard/risk models. In the second part of the project we look at the impact of space-geodetic data on risk by comparing traditional risk models with space-geodetic risk models. Finally, we compare risk results from the various block models to develop an idea of the sensitivity of damage and loss to the different underlying block models assumptions. Research Location: Newark (California), USGS/Menlo Park ESC office Institution: Risk Management Solutions, Inc. Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Desirable Skills/Coursework: Comfortable with learning new computer software, some programming experience helpful but not necessary General Time Span: Flexible, somewhere around the middle of June Mentor(s): Yehuda Bock, PI Brendan Crowell, Diego Melgar (graduate students)
The SOPAC research group would like to mentor an undergraduate student under the SURE Project. We have several projects whose goal is to integrate data from seismic and geodetic (GPS) networks for the purposes of early warning and rapid modeling of natural hazards events (earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, flooding, landsliding). The intern will work with the PI and 2 SIO graduate students in the collection, analysis, and modeling of real-time GPS and seismic data in the Western U.S. and Mexico, focusing on earthquake early warning systems and rapid earthquake response. The intern will also interact with other SCEC institutions working on this topic. Research Location: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Institution: University of California, San Diego Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Undergraduate juniors and seniors in earth, physical, or computer sciences. Required is an attention to detail, accuracy, interest in societal benefits of science, and basic programming skills. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Undergraduate courses in natural hazards. Good knowledge of Matlab. General Time Span: ~ three-month period, centered on Summer 2011. Mentor(s): Jamison Steidl, Sandy Seale, Francesco Civilini, Hank Ratzesberger, and Paul Hegarty
Make Your Own Earthquake (MYOE) is a K - 12 outreach activity developed originally by the SCEC Portable Broadband Instrument Center and expanded by the group NEES@UCSB (see http://nees.ucsb.edu/outreach). Recently there has been increasing interest in making this activity available to interested institutions through the NEESacademy on the Neeshub website (http://nees.org/education). The next step in the development of Make Your Own Earthquake is the creation of curriculum modules that utilize the Quake Catcher Network sensor (http://qcn.stanford.edu/). In this project, 1 undergraduate researcher will assist with the development and testing of MYOE curriculum. The students will be using Excel to process QCN data. Depending on level of expertise, graphics programming may be part of the project. Research Location: University of California, Santa Barbara Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: General level of comfort working with computers and a desire to learn. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with the Unix/MAC OSX operating system and Microsoft Excel. Graphics programming ability is desirable. General understanding of earthquakes and seismology. General Time Span: May or June through August or Early September. Mentor(s): Eric M. Dunham
The intern will run computer simulations of the 1992 Landers earthquake. The objective is to investigate how complex fault geometry leads to irregular rupture propagation and the excitation of incoherent high frequency ground motion. The intern will first use maps of the fault system to build a realistic model of the fault geometry. The next step is to determine the set of initial conditions (in terms of stresses and friction law parameters) that permits rupture across the entire fault system at reasonable speeds. Additional constraints will come from measured slip distributions and from the strong motion records. The final step will be to analyze the rupture history and attempt to relate specific phases on the seismograms to geometric features of the fault system. Research Location: Stanford University Institution: Stanford University Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Interest in earthquakes and strong ground motion Desirable Skills/Coursework: Previous programming experience is helpful but not essential. General Time Span: June 13 is the earliest start date; otherwise, any time period is ok. Mentor(s): Susan Fisher, Emergency Management Coordinator
Intern will assist in current disaster preparedness public education, warning, and social media planning, evaluation, and training activities. Tasks may include: 1. Help organize an electronic (Endnote) annotated bibliography of disaster preparedness scientific literature 2. Help map trends in earthquake drill responses over time (SPSS, Excel) 3. Assist in formatting a campus-specific ShakeOut drill survey for CSU Fullerton faculty and students using web-based survey software (e.g., Survey Monkey) 4. Contribute to design of online earthquake preparedness tutorial Research Location: CSU Fullerton Institution: CSU Fullerton Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Literature searching, word processing, database skills Desirable Skills/Coursework: Basic statistics, questionnaire design, referencing software, SPSS, Excel, Survey Monkey/Zoomerang General Time Span: June – Mid Aug, flexible Mentor(s): Stephen Bender (Coalition for Global School Safety), Mark Benthien (USC Southern California Earthquake Center), Rebekkah Green (Western Washington University), Michelle Wood (Calif. State Univ. Fullerton)
Intern will assist in current disaster preparedness public education focused on the experience of the education sector in community-wide disaster drills. Social media planning, evaluation, and training activities. Student will be part of a small team dispersed across the U.S. and will focus on development of information, education and communication products (Other team members will have skills in disaster management and data analysis). Tasks may include: 1. Assist in development, analysis and interpretation of results of surveys of schools, school districts, colleges and universities (and possibly individual & families and businesses & organizations as well). Data comes from surveys of the 2008 Great Southern California ShakeOut, and the 2009 and 2009 Great California Shakeouts. 2. Develop engaging reports, presentations, and web-resources to communicate trends in disaster preparedness, guidance for and benefits of education sector participation in community-wide drills. 3. Compile and review existing guidance materials for university campus disaster drills in order to develop a guidance package from both existing and new materials. 4. Support international outreach efforts such as: strategic planning to promote Disaster Resilient Universities, working with the Coalition for Global School Safety, Universidad Central de Venezuela or Boğaziçi University, Istanbul to support future activities. Research Location: New York City (TBA), USC, Southern California Earthquake Center, Los Angeles or University of Western Washington, Bellingham Institution: Risk RED in association with USC, Southern California Earthquake Center and Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Graphic Design and Layout software and or web-design Desirable Skills/Coursework: Graphic design, interaction design, data visualization, web-design and/or Public health education, social service planning and administration or community organization General Time Span: 10 weeks, any time June-September Mentor(s): Dr Cynthia Ebinger and Dustin Cote, University of Rochester; Dr Falk Amelung and Marco Bagnardi, RSMAS, University of Miami
Three-dimensional visualizations of ocean island volcano systems aid in the integration of spatially and temporally diverse data sets, and enable non-experts to gain a background understanding of geohazards. Basaltic shield volcanoes in the western Galapagos Island chain are the most rapidly deforming volcanoes worldwide, and they are visited by thousands of tourists each year. The summer intern will use existing earthquake epicentral locations, topography/bathymetry, and InSAR inteferograms to compare time-varying patterns in surface and brittle deformation fields as imaged in 3D. The resulting visualizations will be used in the Galapagos National Park information center, and updated as new information becomes available. The project will involve earthquake relocations using cross-correlation and cluster analyses, as will as an introduction to satellite geodesy. Research Location: USC and University of Rochester Institution: University of Rochester Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: The summer intern should have a background in geophysics, physics and/or active tectonics. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience with MATLAB, C++ would be a plus. General Time Span: late May-mid-July; meeting in September. Mentor(s): Karl Mueller, University of Colorado
This project will focus on mapping the Laguna Salada fault zone in northern Baja California. The work is aimed at quantifying strain produced in the 1892 Mw 7.1 Laguna Salada earthquake, its relationship to broader fault zone structure and the reactivation of fault slip during the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake. In short, the project seeks to define moment release in 1892 and the broader structural geology as defined by existing field mapping and seismicity illuminated by the 2010 event. The work will build on efforts by SCEC scientists to understand the interaction of the earthquakes in 1892 and 2010 and their implications for seismic hazard posted by future strike slip earthquakes in Southern California. The work will include mapping of the entire Laguna Salada fault zone including Late Quaternary fault scarps, older inactive faults in the zone and alluvial deposits offset by structures in the region. Mapping will utilize high resolution LiDAR data shot along the fault zone, which has already been uploaded to the Active Tectonics Lab at Boulder. The LiDAR data will form the basis for mapping key features. Data will be compiled and analyzed using Google Earth Pro, using methods currently being developed by John Fletcher’s group at CICESE in Ensenada. Products will include: • A 1:5000 map of faults in the zone, including active and inactive structures • Alluvial deposits that either are offset by faults and/or bury them • Offsets along the faults, including measurements derived from the LiDAR and fieldwork already completed by SCEC scientists. • Structural models in both map and cross section views that relate the proportion of vertical and lateral displacements to fault geometry, particularly along releasing bends where the proportion of lateral vs normal slip varies. This project will involve collaboration with other SCEC researchers that have teamed up to describe the 1892 rupture (Rockwell, Teran, and others) as the project develops. Research Location: Boulder, Colorado Institution: University of Colorado Number of Interns Needed: one Required Skills/Coursework: Mapping skills in Google Earth Pro, integration of excell, datasets in GE Pro, field experience in active tectonics and structural geology. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Same as above General Time Span: Over the summer of 2011 in Boulder Colorado For more information contact: SCEC Education Programs Office of Experiential Learning & Career Advancement internships@scec.org 213-821-6340 |
||||
SCEC.org 
SCEC Internship Programs
SCEC Internship Programs
Created in the SCEC  system
|
Last modified: July 26 2017 18:51 |
© 2011  Southern California Earthquake Center
@ 
Privacy Policy and Accessibility Policy |