SCEC Internship Programs
SURE Intern Projects Proposed for Summer 2015
Mentor(s): Professor Sally McGill
- Geodetic Studies of the San Andreas fault, San Bernardino Mountains (2015)
I seek two interns to help with collecting GPS data from the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity. Dates of the 2015 internship will be June 22-Aug 14. Interns will learn how to set up and operate geodetic-quality GPS antennae and receivers and will then travel as a pair to remote locations in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity to set up GPS equipment over existing benchmarks. This will often involve hiking several miles to reach remote benchmarks and may involve camping at less remote benchmarks in order to guard the equipment from theft. Interns will also help to train a large group of other undergraduate students and high school and middle school teachers in the use of the GPS equipment beginning on July 6. Data collection will be completed by around July 17, with the remaining 4 weeks of the internship available for modeling and interpreting the GPS site velocities in terms of fault slip rates and preparation of a research poster to present at the SCEC meeting in September.
Research Location: San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity
Institution: California State University, San Bernardino
Number of Interns Needed: 2
Required Skills/Coursework: Trigonometry (pre-calculus) Map-reading and use of a compass Introductory Geology (especially plate tectonics and earthquakes)
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Structural Geology Tectonics
General Time Span: June 22 to August 14, 2015
Mentor(s): Zhigang Peng (PI) Xiaofeng Meng (Graduate Student) Chastity Aiken (Graduate Student)
- Systematic Detection of Microearthquakes around the World
Earthquakes occur every day in California and elsewhere around the world, either naturally or induced by human activity. While many have been identified and located by analysts in seismic network centers, a significant fraction of them are still missing, especially during an intensive earthquake swarm, or immediately after moderate-to-large earthquakes. These missing events could be largely identified by semi-automatic waveform matching technique, which uses waveforms of existing events as templates to scan through continuous data for new events with high similarities. I see two undergraduate interns to work with a group of graduate students to conduct systematic detections of small earthquakes using this technique. The target regions include geothermal/tectonically active regions in California, waste-water injection sites in Central and Eastern US, as well as polar/glacier regions. These newly detected events will be used to better understand physical mechanisms of earthquake triggering, induced seismicity, and icequakes. Students will learn how to conduct scientific research and necessary computer tools in the frontier of earthquake seismology.
Research Location: Atlanta, GA
Institution: Georgia Tech
Number of Interns Needed: 2
Required Skills/Coursework: Basic computer skills, familiar with Geophysics
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Familiar with the Unix/Linux environment, shell script, and Matlab. General understanding of earthquakes, seismology, and signal processing
General Time Span: May-June through August
Mentor(s): Mark Romano, CEO Blue Tavern Productions (UseIT 2011 Intern Alumnus - http://youtu.be/0eGHBczw4Nc), Mark Benthien, Jason Ballmann, and Robert de Groot
- FEMA Earthquake Documentary Internship
The project includes the creation of a feature-length documentary with reenactments of a major rupture and first responders. The 7 Steps To Earthquake Safety will be tied into these interweaving narratives of real first hand experiences.
An educators toolkit, interactive website and mobile app will be anchored by the movie, and provide resources for families, schools and offices to better prepare for future earthquakes.
Interns will work in preproduction (producing, archival, graphic design, social media, etc.) and as a production assistant on 10-14 shooting days.
Research Location: University of Southern California & Field
Institution: University of Southern California
Number of Interns Needed: 1-2
Required Skills/Coursework: Sophomore - Senior USC School of Cinematic Arts Major or USC Marshall School of Business Major
Desirable Skills/Coursework: - On set video production experience. - Producing experience. - Flash design and/or development. - Storyboarding. -Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator. - Social media marketing. - Publicity coordination. - Accounting. - Public/Private initiatives or partnerships. - International TV/Film marketing.
General Time Span: April 17 - October 16th
Mentor(s): Dr. Mike Oskin and Ph.D. student Veronica Prush
- SCEC Geochronology Synthesis
One summer intern will work closely with project mentors to compile SCEC3 and SCEC4 geochronology results from paleoseismic trenches and landforms. The objective of this project is to produce a database of results with associated project metadata. This is also an opportunity to explore temporal clustering of ages that may reflect climate-related processes of sedimentation and landscape evolution.
Research Location: Davis, CA
Institution: University of California, Davis
Number of Interns Needed: 1
Required Skills/Coursework: Proficiency with Excel. Ability to read and understand papers and project reports containing geochronology data. Map-reading skills. Geoscience background.
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Geomorphology or earthquake geology coursework or field experience.
General Time Span: Summer 2015. Exact dates are flexible.
Mentor(s): David D. Oglesby (UC Riverside) Thomas K. Rockwell (San Diego State University) Aron J. Meltzner (Earth Observatory of Singapore)
- Modeling Rupture through the Brawley Seismic Zone Stepover: Can Ruptures Propagate between the San Andreas and Imperial Faults?
Using recent geological and paleoseismic data, we propose to model potential earthquakes in the region of the southern San Andreas-Imperial fault stepover, with the goal of determining the likelihood of earthquakes spanning this structural gap. This project is the collaboration of fault geologists and earthquake modelers with an intern who will work with and synthesize results from both disciplines. The intern will start the summer with PIs Meltzner and Rockwell at SDSU, where he/she will work on setting the final faulting configurations based on geological data. After approximately 2-3 weeks at SDSU, the intern will construct and implement dynamic faulting models with the help and supervision of PI Oglesby and a postdoctoral researcher at UCR.
Research Location: San Diego State University, UC Riverside
Institution: University of California, Riverside
Number of Interns Needed: 1
Required Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with tectonics and faulting. Familiarity with computer programming of some kind.
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Familiarity with fault geology and lithospheric structure Familiarity with Matlab and C programming languages
General Time Span: June 22-August 28
Mentor(s): Dr. Mark R. Legg
- Basin Inversion along Transpressional Fault Systems
Miocene basins formed during the rifting of Inner California Continental Borderland and adjacent regions were subsequently inverted by post-Miocene transpression along major northwest-trending right-slip fault zones. This project will focus on the Miocene basins uplifted along the flanks of the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge and the conjugate rift margin represented by the coastal fault systems including the Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon, Carlsbad and San Mateo, Palos Verdes and THUMS-Huntington Beach fault zones. Objectives are to define the geometry of the Miocene rift basins, timing of uplift, and recognition of significant post-Miocene tectonic events that will help more accurately describe the regional tectonic evolution. Stratigraphic control from well logs available in the public domain will provide stratigraphic control for the coastal basins, and seafloor samples from Miocene outcrops on the elevated Borderland ridges and islands provide control offshore. In addition, mapping the geometry of the faults active in the basin evolution and inversion in 3D will provide better control on defining potential for large earthquakes on the offshore transpressional fault systems including potential for tsunami generation.
Research Location: Offices in Huntington Beach
Institution: Legg Geophysical
Number of Interns Needed: 1
Required Skills/Coursework: Basic geological and geophysical coursework: understanding sedimentology and stratigraphy, basic structural geology, seismic reflection methods. Geometry and trigonometry used for navigation processing of seismic data.
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Project will involve interpretation of seismic reflection profiles on a Geographix workstation, some seismic data processing including velocity analysis using Vista (v11) interactive software, and mapping using GIS. Familiarity with GIS would be helpful - ArcGIS or MapInfo will be used.
General Time Span: Between late May and early September
Mentor(s): Gareth Funning (PI) Nader Shakibay Senobari (Graduate student)
- Improving the density of GPS velocities in southern California by reoccupation of campaign GPS sites
We propose to undertake a campaign of field GPS surveys in three areas where coverage of existing GPS velocity data is poor. We will target sites where a single new measurement will lead to significant improvements in precision of velocity estimates. Our target areas will be: (i) the Western Transverse Ranges, including the Ventura basin – a SCEC Special Fault Study Area that has limited existing GPS data coverage; (ii) the Elsinore fault, a structure capable of sustaining large earthquakes about which comparatively little is known; and (iii) the central San Jacinto fault, where a persistent seismic gap and high seismic hazard exist.
Research Location: Riverside County, Ventura County
Institution: University of California, Riverside
Number of Interns Needed: 1
Required Skills/Coursework: Clean driver's license Familiarity with Google Earth Familiarity with Unix/Linux operating systems, and the command line Ability to carry ~30 lbs of equipment over short distances
Desirable Skills/Coursework: Experience at setting up GPS equipment Familiarity with GPS theory Familiarity with GPS software (e.g. GAMIT-GLOBK)
General Time Span: July-September 2015
