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Intern Programs Home SURE UseIT Mentor(s): Andrew Barth, Professor of Earth Sciences Sarah Douglas, graduate student mentor
Improving models of crustal and upper mantle structure is necessary for understanding crustal architecture and how rifting processes influenced the development of lithospheric structure in southern California. The summer intern will use the petrology of basalts and mantle xenoliths from the southwestern Basin and Range and Salton Trough region to explore geophysical models of crust and lithosphere thickness and composition. The project will begin with field sampling in selected areas of the southwestern Basin and Range province in southern California. Following fieldwork, the intern will be responsible for carrying out petrography and laboratory measurements of rock and mineral compositions. The summer intern should have a background in petrology and/or geochemistry. 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, Indiana Institution: Indiana University Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Mineralogy, Petrology or Geochemistry Desirable Skills/Coursework: Excel, GIS General Time Span: May and June Mentor(s): Sally McGill, Project Director Thomas Crane, graduate student
The San Andreas and San Jacinto faults together accommodate about half of the relative motion between the Pacific and North American Plates in southern California. I am looking for two interns to help with a paleoseismic study of the San Jacinto fault and with collection of GPS data to monitor strain accumulation across both faults. In the early part of the summer we will work in a paleoseismic trench across the San Jacinto fault near Moreno Valley/Hemet California. The goal of this work is to identify and document stratigraphic evidence for prehistoric earthquakes on the San Jacinto fault. The GPS data collection will begin after the trenching is finished. A large-scale GPS data collection campaign, involving numerous students and local high school teachers will take place from July 22 to August 9. This will involve several days of training and orientation in using the GPS equipment, followed by 5 days of field work, traveling to various benchmarks and setting up GPS equipment. Some sites will requiring hiking 2 miles or more each way and some will require camping. Interns should be in good physical condition and should enjoy physical exertion and working outside. They should be willing to carry equipment and to work in conditions that may be hot, windy, muddy, etc. Research Location: CSU San Bernardino, plus field work near Hemet and in the San Bernardino Mountains Institution: California State University, San Bernardino Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Interns should have a good grasp of trigonometry (pre-calculus) in order to interpret the GPS data that we will collect. Interns should also be in good physical condition and should enjoy physical exertion and working outside. They should be willing to carry equipment and to work in conditions that may be hot, windy, muddy, etc. Desirable Skills/Coursework: California driver's license Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel General Time Span: The fault trenching will last 3-4 weeks and may start as early as mid-May, if groundwater conditions permit. However, if groundwater levels are high, the start of trenching may be delayed until sometime in June. Updates to the schedule will be posted here. The dates of participation are somewhat flexible. Ideally I would like to find two interns who are available to help with the trenching from mid-May to the end of June, and then again from mid-July to August 9, with a break during the first two weeks of July, so that the internship does not exceed 10 weeks. However, recognizing that this may not be possible for many students, I am willing to be somewhat flexible. However, all applicants to this project should ensure that they will be available from July 22 to August 2 to help with the main part of the GPS data collection campaign. Those who would like to have their research poster at the SCEC meeting be focused on the GPS project should plan to stay until August 9, to allow time to prepare that poster after collection of the GPS data, and may begin their internship 10 weeks prior to Aug 9. Those who prefer to focus their SCEC poster on the trenching work could start and finish their internship earlier. Mentor(s): John N. Louie, Professor Gretchen Schmauder and Annie Kell-Hills, PhD students
This project is running hundreds of earthquake scenarios for areas of California and Nevada, to create urban hazard maps based on physics and geology: 1. Set-up and run earthquake scenarios for Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas, as well as Olsen’s (2000) LA Basin scenarios, with stochastic geotechnical layers and basin floors. The intern will use interactive and tutorial tools to set up models for intensive seismic-wave computations on small Linux clusters, as well as laptops. The intern will develop an understanding of the geological, geophysical, and geotechnical data available on faults and basins in these regions. 2. Use SCEC’s Broadband Platform to compare predicted earthquake shaking against data recorded from small earthquakes. 3. Combine shaking maps computed for all scenarios in the Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe regions into probabilistic hazard maps. The intern will develop an understanding of how various geological, geophysical, and geotechnical factors affect earthquake shaking. 4. Presentation of results at SCEC workshops and the SCEC Annual Meeting (with Intern presentations), and journal publication authorship opportunities. Research Location: University of Nevada, Reno Institution: University of Nevada, Reno Number of Interns Needed: One 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 21 and August 24. Mentor(s): PI: E. Brodsky Postdoc supervisor: T. Candela
Granular flows are ubiquitous and poorly understood. How much stress does it require to make a landslide flow? How fast will the powdered rock inside a fault zone move during an earthquake? These are open questions that hinge on determining the rheology of granular flows. The UC Santa Cruz lab is performing experiments using a state-of-the-art rheometer on samples ranging from beach sand to finely ground rock powder. We are looking for 1-2 laboratory assistants to help with these experiments in the summer of 2012. Research Location: University of California, Santa Cruz Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Preferred: Introductory geophysics or continuum mechanics course. Good working knowledge of stress and strain. Electronics experience preferred. Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Flexible timing. The UCSC summer quarter runs mid-June through mid-September. Mentor(s): Jamison Steidl, Sandra Seale, Paul Hegarty, Robin Gee, and Francesco Civilini
The SCEC borehole instrumentation program is a data-gathering effort that coordinates seismic observations from borehole instruments in southern California. This project will employ 1 undergraduate researcher to assist with the ongoing development of a web-based waveform explorer to provide search and waveform viewing capabilities of earthquakes recorded at the borehole sites. The student will be assisting in the website development that integrates the waveform explorer into a site dedicated to the SCEC borehole instrumentation. Depending on level of expertise, web programming skills and low-level data-processing that will require attention to the details of the data storage format and code development in C may also be part of the project. Research Location: UCSB Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Basic computer skills (MS Word, Excel, etc.), familiarity with the Unix/Linux environment, and web programming concepts. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with mysql, PHP, Perl, and C programing. General understanding of earthquakes and seismology. General Time Span: May-June through August or Early September. 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 2012. 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 2012 by making recon hikes to assess lower altitude talus slopes as possible sites to collect data. Mentor(s): Andrea Donnellan
NASA’s QuakeSim project develops computational infrastructure for modeling and mining remotely sensed and other earthquake related data. QuakeSim is a science framework for modeling and understanding earthquake and tectonic processes that integrates many data types and models to fully simulate and understand the earthquake process. Successful applicants will assist in the development of the QuakeSim web pages and cyberinfrastructure. Tasks may include improving the interfaces, testing functionality of the web pages and applications, tracking bug reports or feature requests, or developing documentation. Successful applicants are expected to work independently without appreciable direction, but are also expected to interface with the team, participate in weekly telecons and periodic hackathons, and seek assistance as required. Research Location: Pasadena, CA Institution: JPL Caltech Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Web page development and preferably familiarity with drupal, programming languages and in particular python, c++, javascript, experience with web services and/or databases and mysql in particular. Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Mentor(s): Andrea Donnellan
NASA’s QuakeSim project develops computational infrastructure for modeling and mining remotely sensed and other earthquake related data. QuakeSim is a science framework for modeling and understanding earthquake and tectonic processes that integrates many data types and models to fully simulate and understand the earthquake process. QuakeSim focuses on modeling remotely sensed crustal deformation data for understanding earthquake fault behavior. Successful applicants will assist in developing and running crustal deformation earthquake fault models. This may include analyzing UAVSAR and GPS data, running inversions for fault slip, or developing forward models to characterize crustal deformation. Applicants may also add new faults or other data to the QuakeTables database. Successful applicants are expected to work independently without appreciable direction, but are also expected to interface with the team, participate in weekly telecons and periodic hackathons, and seek assistance as required. Research Location: Pasadena, CA Institution: JPL Caltech Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with Earth science and in particular geology, earthquake faults, or geophysics. Some experience working with computers or with computer programming desired. Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: Mentor(s): David Okaya (USC)
The Pelona-Orocopia-Rand schists are postulated to underlie much of the Southern California Mojave tectonic block. Tectonic models for the evolution of Southern California vary depending on the lateral extent of this schist terrane. While these schists are exposed along the San Andreas plate boundary fault, there is no direct evidence of their breadth into and under the Mojave. Studies using seismology may provide the best opportunities to detect the schists in place at depth. These schists have strong rock fabrics that can impart observable seismic anisotropy to seismic waves. The presence of this crustal seismic anisotropy and the inferred subsurface distribution of schists can influence studies within SCEC Focus Areas (Unified Structural Representation, Lithospheric Architecture and Dynamics) and Disciplinary Activities (seismology). This summer project is a multi-disciplinary calibration study designed to use real seismic waves in order to quantify how much they can be affected by the Pelona-Orocopia-Rand schists. The Orocopia Mountains near Palm Springs is filled with Orocopia schist, making it the schist's type locality. The Southern California Seismic Network (SCSN) has seismic stations that surround the Orocopia Mountains that record numerous earthquakes associated with the Salton Trough and San Andreas fault. The goal of this project is to examine seismic waves before they enter and after traveling through the mountain range in order to measure how much alteration occurred caused by the schists. The intern will extract earthquake seismic data from the SCSN and carry out seismic anisotropy analyses. The intern will integrate these seismological results with existing structural geology, rock fabric deformation, and lab petrophysical studies. During the internship we will make trips to see the schists in outcrop. The intern will gain experience in seismic data analysis, digital signal processing, advanced Linux and research computer applications. Opportunities exist to present at the SCEC annual meeting, GSA or AGU national meeting, and for journal publication authorship. Research Location: University of Southern California Institution: University of Southern California Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with geophysics, structural geology, petrology. Basic computer skills (Excel, Illustrator). Desirable Skills/Coursework: The intern will learn and use several types of computer skills and concepts. Any exposure to these will accelerate the learning process: Linux/OS-X (scripting, file handling concepts), Matlab or similar, knowledge of programming (C, object oriented, python, etc.), time series analysis or digital signal processing. General Time Span: flexible between May-August. Mentor(s): Dr. William Amidon (Middlebury College), Dr. Dylan Rood (University of California, Santa Barbara & University of Glasgow)
This project will use cosmogenic surface exposure dating of landforms and lava flows to better understand the earthquake history and hazards of faults within the Hat Creek graben, northern Sierra Nevada, California. The graben consists of a system of en echelon normal faults extending north from the Lassen Volcanic province, which have likely produced large magnitude (Mw > 6) earthquakes during the Holocene (last 12,000 years). Developing a paleoseismic record in this region is important for hazard analysis and assessment of safety for existing infrastructure (i.e., hydroelectric dams, gas pipelines, and aqueducts). The intern will participate in an ongoing research project that involves detailed geomorphic mapping, paleoseismic trenching, and geochronology. The specific goal of this internship is to determine the age of geomorphic features (e.g., glacial deposits, river terraces, fault scarps, and lava flows) using 3He, 21Ne, and 36Cl dating of volcanic minerals, including pyroxene, olivine and feldspar. This will involve field mapping and cosmogenic sampling early in the summer, followed by preparation of samples for cosmogenic dating and participation in laboratory analysis. Research Location: Field work in Northern Sierra Nevada, California; Lab work in Middlebury, VT Institution: Middlebury College Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Basic field skills and high level of comfort working in a lab environment. Ability to maintain detailed lab notes and a commitment to careful lab work. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Basic field skills and high level of comfort working in a lab environment. Ability to maintain detailed lab notes and a commitment to careful lab work. General Time Span: Late May to Early August Mentor(s): Kathleen Springer, Senior Curator of Geological Sciences
The San Bernardino County Museum(SBCM) is completing a suite of exhibits in our new Hall of Geological Wonders. The SBCM is a free choice learning environment and part of the EPIcenter (Earthquake Education and Public Information Center) network in California, providing earthquake awareness and preparedness messaging. Many of the new exhibits are focused on earthquake science, utilizing place-based learning to teach big ideas in geosciences. One of these exhibits will interpret paleoseismology, which will include a three-dimensional recreation of a paleoseismic trench on the San Andreas fault, with the addition of two actual peels from the San Andreas Fault - one from Pallet Creek, the other from Wrightwood. Our intern will assist in creating exhibit content as well as the activity that will complement the exhibit (a hands-on interactive inside the re-created trench), as well as educational materials for school groups. Additionally, we will produce an interpretive field guide for Pallett Creek that will provide our visitors and other EPIcenters with a companion interpretive piece. Research Location: Redlands, CA; various field excursions Institution: San Bernardino County Museum Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Geological Sciences coursework; preferably a geology major; basic computer skills; knowledge of most common computer programs; good communication skills including writing. An interest in teaching, in both an informal and formal educational setting. Desirable Skills/Coursework: General Time Span: June - August 2012 Mentor(s): Michele M. Wood, PhD, Dept. of Health Science, Director, California-Nevada Public Health Training Center, CSU Fullerton
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), and 4) Help analyze and summarize evaluation data in preparation for publication. Research Location: CSU Fullerton Institution: CSU Fullerton Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Literature searching, word processing, database skills Desirable Skills/Coursework: Data analysis, questionnaire design, referencing software (e.g., EndNote), SPSS, Excel, Survey Monkey/Zoomerang; writing skills a plus! General Time Span: July-August, 2012 (flexible) Mentor(s): Prof. Lisa Grant Ludwig and Dr. Sinan Akciz will be mentors. Intern will also be able to work with Prof. Ramon Arrowsmith of ASU, and his graduate students
The San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain has been a target of our paleoseismology research for more than 20 years. This year, we plan to excavate the fault at Wallace Creek in the Carrizo National Monument, and nearby sites, to expose Holocene ruptures and collect samples for radiocarbon dating. The results will be used to better constrain the slip rate and slip history of this important fault. We seek an intern to help with field work and office work. The office work involves drafting trench logs and organizing samples, logs, and other data. Research Location: San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain, near Taft CA; University of California Irvine Institution: University of California, Irvine Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: 1) Coursework and/or experience with geology field work, especially field mapping and/or stratigraphy/sedimentology. 2) Enjoyment of fieldwork and enjoyment or tolerance of detailed computer based mapping (trench logging) in the office. 3) Previous occupational, recreational or residential exposure to natural soils or dust in southern California or Arizona or areas where Valley Fever is endemic. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Desirable skills: Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator Desirable courses: earthquake geology, geomorphology, neotectonics, Quaternary geology General Time Span: 10 week period: either June 11-Aug 17th or June 18th- Aug 24th For more information contact: SCEC Education Programs Office of Experiential Learning & Career Advancement internships@scec.org 213-821-6340 |
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SCEC Internship Programs
SCEC Internship Programs
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