From June 25 to July 9, UO senior physics instructor Dean Livelybrooks and a team of national scientists on board the Atlantis research vessel will recover earthquake-monitoring equipment in the Pacific Ocean. Follow tweets and other activity at @uocas and #uoshiptrip. To read dispatches from the Atlantis, visit http://around.uoregon.edu/cascadia-initiative.
Where a major earthquake and the Northwest are concerned, the question isn’t “if” – it’s “when.”
Scientists say the region is overdue for a massive earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a coastal area stretching from Canada to northern California where the continental plate is slowly overriding the ocean floor. Researchers at the University of Oregon are leading a team of scientists from across the nation engaged in a multi-year effort to determine the risk to the Pacific Northwest.
Doug Toomey, a UO geophysicist, is at the helm of the Cascadia Initiative project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and $10 million in federal Recovery Act dollars to study questions ranging from megathrust earthquakes to volcanic arc structure to the formation, deformation and hydration of the area’s tectonic plates.
The damage caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan illustrates that there are still many major unknowns regarding the risk from a catastrophic event.
“The U.S. is, in some ways, in the early stages of evaluating and mitigating risk in the Pacific Northwest,” Toomey said. “This study will lay the groundwork for many current and future efforts.”
Between June 25 and July 9, UO senior physics instructor Dean Livelybrooks and a team of national scientists on board the Atlantis research vessel will retrieve ocean-bottom seismometers that have been collecting data on earthen vibrations for a year. The team will move south from Astoria to Cape Mendocino, off California’s north coast, recovering the monitors along the way.
The task will be challenging. The team will manage rough waters while guiding a remotely operated vehicle to retrieve the seismometers, which weigh hundreds of pounds each and are deployed at depths of up to 3,000 feet – about a half-mile. Working within a two-week window, the team hopes to recover all 30 of the monitors.
“We’re just going to get worn to a frazzle,” Livelybrooks said, laughing.
The research trip will feature "telepresence," which is a set of technologies that allows a person to feel as if they are present on the ship.
In an uncommon arrangement, the data that is collected will quickly be made available throughout the scientific community, rather than just to a select group involved in the project. That will further understanding of earthquake activity not just in the Pacific Northwest but across the globe.
“I'm sure researchers from all over the world will access the data that is being collected,” Toomey said.
- by Matt Cooper, UO Office of Strategic Communications