More Links

I will be at AGAP S
Source: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/gambit/ProjectLogistics.htm

Here is the link to the main page for AGAP.

AGAP HOME

The link for the GAMSEIS project is

GAMSEIS HOME

Killing Two Birds With One Snow Ball -- by the way, that is impossible

Note: No one was hurt (Severely) during the making of this post

Yo! Check it out! On MSNBC they just published an article about my thesis (not specifically my thesis, but general area) as well as the project I will be working on in Antarctica. It talks a bunch about how many people/countries are involved in the two projects. It also mentions how Penn State and Washington University will be doing the seismic stuff down there -- described in limited detail earlier. The link for the site is

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27312822/

Reminder:
My thesis is on the crustal structure along the Transantarctic Mountains
The project I am working on in Antarctica is AGAP -- better details of location are given in the article.

So, whats up next:
On Friday me, Stew, and Sam will be heading to Washington University for the weekend to meet up with the rest of the crew and likely get some training with the equipment we will be using. Its probably a better idea to learn how things work in +50 degree weather rather than -50.

Hopefully more details will be given regarding a timescale for everything when Im in St. Louis. But even then it will only be an estimate of everything since the weather is very unpredictable and can change plans.

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"You know, one thing you sometimes forget is, no matter how hard your day, no matter how tough your choices, how complex your ethical decisions, you always get to choose what you have for lunch."

My Research.. in some detail (liitle, but some)

Crustal Structure Along the Transantarctic Mountain Front Using Receiver Functions

What am I doing? Well, in a nutshell the goal is to investigate Earth's structure along the Western front of the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM). To do this I had to compute Receiver Functions (RF) for teleseismic (far far away) earthquakes of a magnitude 5.5 or higher. Then I am using the H-kappa stacking method to get an idea of crustal thickness and Poisson's Ratio (gives idea of bulk composition). For more details on all this stuff keep on reading

Images: The one on the left (Lawrence et al. 2006) shows Antarctica with locations of the 3 TAMSEIS arrays. The image on the right (dont know where it came from) labels where the mountains are.

Here are more details on...

Transantarctic Mountains: They BIG! Its ~3500km long, 200km wide mountain range that divides the East Antarctic Craton from the West Antarctic Rift System (see map above). Peaks rise over 4000m (13,000+ ft) with the highest being just above 4500m. One interesting thing to note about this is that unlike other mountain ranges of similar size, TAM shows no evidence of a compressional origin (continents, things colliding into each other) -- which is in part why we doing what we doing to see how TAM formed.

Do you want to know about Receiver Fuctions? Sure you do!
RFs are computed from a 3 component (N-S, E-W, Vert) seismometers to show the relative response of Earth's structure near the seismometer. What do they look like: (image taken from Chuck Ammon's website - http://eqseis.geosc.psu.edu/~cammon/HTML/RftnDocs/rftn01.html)

This is what they look like when the come out to be really pretty (above is a synthetic)... which in my case they havent. So you know what youre looking at. The direct Pwave is well, the direct Pwave. The Ps wave is a P wave that get converted to a S wave due to a velocity contrast in layer. The other two waves (PpPhs and PpShs + PsShs) are simply multiples that are reverberating in the crust. To see their travel paths go to the website listed above.

H-kappa stacking: This gives us an idea of the crustal thickness and Poisson's ratio. Do you really want to know more? Here is the equation it solves

Zhu and Kanamori (2000)

where r(t) is the radial RF, t1,2,3 are the arrival times of the Ps and crustal reverberations arrival times and w is a weight assigned to the RF. Ok, thats all you need to know.

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Good news! I have officially been PQ'd (physically qualified)!!!!! Weird thing about it though is that they told me I wouldnt be PQd until I took care of all of my dental work befrehand but I guess since I called them the just took my word that I would get it done so now Im good to go!

I did just get my wisdom teeth cut out. It went well. I havent had to take any of the pain medication and the swelling is very little. My face was pretty numb for most of the day but its getting better now. I could use some chipotle tho...

Alright, thanks for reading. Remember --

If at first you dont succeed... It must be someone else's fault.

Find them.

Blame them.

Make them pay.

Destination: Middle of nowhere, literally -- I cant wait.

Hello All,

You may have heard this already but for those who haven't... I will be going to Antarctica this winter. I have setup this blog (emo -- right Michelle?) so that I can post what it is I'm doing there (if I have internet access)

Background:
I will be working on the Gamburtsev Antarctic Mountains Seismic Experiment (GAMSEIS) which is part of a larger project, AGAP. What I will be doing is installing broadband seismometers to help image Earth's structure below the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains.

The highest peak is ~3,400 m and on top of that there is ~600 m of ice. I will leave the US on November 29th and go to Christchurch, New Zealand. After a couple of days there filled with training and equipment preparation I will then head to McMurdo Station for a couple of days -- SNOW SCHOOL! From there go to the South Pole to adjust to the cold and altitude. Then I will head to camp ->AGAP-S (on map above) Its gonna be high up.

Here is an image of the South Pole taken from the Washington University website for this project -- all white huh?



Assuming all goes well and weather doesn't delay flights, I will return to New Zealand somewhere between the 9-15th of January. I will then run around the islands for a bit and possible make a trip to Fiji -- Im in the area... might as well, right?


Some more details:
Is it cold? Hell yes. View this video to get an idea. It was taken at McMurdo Station which is along the edge of the continent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz2SeEzxMuE

When the weather is like this I wont be outside. Ill stay in and make an attempt to stay warm while in a tent -- ahh! no permanent structure at the camp.

So, what do you have to look forward to?
1) Pictures from New Zealand, McMurdo, White everything, South Pole, camp, and more white everything
2) Updates on the project
3) Knowing how my latest adventure is going - this way you stop asking
4) Lots more stuff I haven't thought of yet

Next Entry:
I will write something about my own research -- similar but not same location -- so that you can understand why I am getting sent to Antarctica -- yes, i volunteered.

Questions? Comments? It doesnt matter. Youre here to read what I write!

Im kidding. Send me messages if you want. Hopefully I will be able to answer while down at the South Pole

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No, there are no polar bears there.
No, it wont feel like Im standing upside.
Yes, sun will be out 24hrs a day