Articles

2019

Derek Schutt in the Yukon for the Mackenzie Mountains EarthScope Project

Derek Schutt


2019-07-11

Wait, I could do geophysics—physics and math—and go outside?! That's the perfect combination.
15 years

Fifteen Years of Earth Science Exploration


2019-02-14

The EarthScope National Office
Transportable Array project staff in 2013.

Reflections on the Accomplishments of EarthScope’s USArray


2019-02-14

The USArray has operated for over 15 years as a community science facility designed to address EarthScope’s goal of understanding the structure and evolution of the North American continent.
location of speaker series

Education Corner: Final inSights Issue


2019-02-14

Sharing Science through the EarthScope Speaker Series and Save the Date for the EarthScope Legacy Education and Outreach Virtual Workshop

2018

EarthScope video intro

New EarthScope Video!


2018-12-12

15 Years of Geoscience Discovery and Education in North America
top 10

EarthScope Top 10 Discoveries


2018-12-07

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Cliffs of the Midcontinent Rift

Redrawing the Map of the Midcontinent Rift


2018-09-04

EarthScope data is changing our views of this billion-year-old feature
Earthscope Globe

Media Advisory


2018-05-24

Science Educators Gather in Anchorage to Learn about Teaching and Preparing for Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes in Alaska
InSights announcements banner

EarthScope Announcements


2018-05-04

inSights Spring 2018
Installing an MT-TA station (NDD28) near New Johns Lake, North Dakota, on October 19, 2017. (Image courtesy of Fred Anderson, North Dakota Geological Survey)

Mapping North America’s Magnetic Personality


2018-05-02

Completing a Cross-Country Dataset of Magnetotelluric Observations
Emily Hopper

Emily Hopper


2018-03-06

Humans of EarthScope: "The stuff we’re researching is fundamental to how the whole planet functions."
Background: View of the Georgia Mountain Research & Education Center, where rural schoolkids come to learn about seismic monitoring (Photo by Rob Hawman). Inset: Fourth-grade students examine seismograms for an "earthquake" they have generated during an outdoor Environmental Field Day event at the center, which is near Blairsville, GA. (Image from Peggy Schneider, GMREC Community Council)

Open SESAME


2018-01-29

EarthScope seismic research inspires landowners and students in Georgia
EarthScope inSights header

EarthScope Announcements


2018-01-29

inSights Winter 2017-18
Station Specialist Jason Theis explains some of the “brains” of the Transportable Array station. (Photo by Beth Grassi)

Inter-Agency Collaborations Take Center Stage at EarthScope Transportable Array Meeting in Alaska


2018-01-28

New Alaska data reaches beyond earthquakes
Rob Hawman

Rob Hawman


2018-01-24

I got into geology originally because I was always fascinated by the history of the earth.

2017

Teaching Teachers at Alaska Earthquake Center, Fairbanks. (Credit M.Agopian)

Education Corner


2017-10-12

In every InSights issue, ESNO features two of the dozens of tools, modules, and activities that utilize EarthScope data to benefit a wide variety of users (K–12, university educators, informal programs like museums or after-school programs).
Elliot Wilson of Pioneer Earthworks operates the drill at Alaska Transportable Array station D27M. (Photo by Max Enders, IRIS).

EarthScope's Transportable Array Spans Alaska, the Last Frontier


2017-10-12

Elliot Wilson of Pioneer Earthworks operates the drill at Alaska Transportable Array station D27M. Photo by Max Enders, IRIS.

Loading gear at Beluga Lake. (credit: S.Tewksbury)

A Writing Intern in the Field


2017-10-11

As the science writing intern for the EarthScope National Office, field work is not generally a part of my job.
Access to SALMON station SALA in western Cook Inlet, showing challenging conditions. At high tide, all the rocks in view are underwater. Here a three-wheeler pulling a trailer is being driven onto the boat at a falling tide. Note the typical bluffs in the background; these bluffs posed challenging access to sites on top.(Credit C.Tape)

By road, boat, plane and helicopter: Creating a remote seismic measurement network


2017-10-03

Want to dig deeper? Click on the "advanced" button in the article for scientific details.
Photo by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Nahshon Almandmoss Pavlof volcano erupts on March 28, 2016. The photo was taken looking northeast from a Coast Guard Hercules aircraft at 20,000 feet.

The Quiet After the Storm


2017-07-26

How EarthScope’s infrasound and seismic capabilities monitor evolving volcanic eruptions
Barry White installing an infrasound sensor

Transportable Array Equips Stations with Infrasound Sensors


2017-07-25

by Andy Frassetto and Kasey Aderhold, IRIS - NSF # SAGE: 1261681, MRI-R2: 0960275 | Summer 2017

Observations of infrasonic signals have…

Ghost Forest

EarthScope's Final National Meeting


2017-06-16

A culmination of 15 years of expansive geoscience research
Wagner Checking Data at Station

Earthquakes on a Passive Margin


2017-05-05

How EarthScope data help reveal the roots of anomalous seismic zones in the southeastern U.S.
Seismology in the Classroom

Seismology in the Classroom


2017-05-05

A new online course connects teachers across Alaska to real-time seismic data
A calving event at Yahtse Glacier in Icy Bay, Alaska, sends a seismic wave through the ice. Seismologists are using these seismic signals to determine when and why calving occurs. Photo by Tim Bartholomaus.

Calving Season


2017-04-03

How EarthScope seismometers help track glacier breakdown
The Alaska Transportable Array deployment coordinator, field operations managers, and station specialists. Photo credit: Maria Sanders, Jeremy Miner, and Ryan Bierma

The Alaska Transportable Array Team


2017-02-01

Achieving Success in Challenging Environments
USA STEM Festival, 2016

Winter 2017 Education Corner


2017-02-01

In every InSights issue, ESNO features two of the dozens of tools, modules, and activities that utilize EarthScope data to benefit a wide variety of users (K–12, university educators, informal programs like museums or after-school programs)
Photo by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Nahshon Almandmoss Pavlof volcano erupts on March 28, 2016. The photo was taken looking northeast from a Coast Guard Hercules aircraft at 20,000 feet.

Volcano study examines relationship between seismic signals, sound waves


2017-01-23

By Sue Mitchell - University of Alaska Fairbanks Press Release - January 17, 2017 (http://news.uaf.edu/hearing-a-volcanic-plume/)

A study of relationships between seismic signals and sound

2016

The Dempster Highway winds southward in the distance from station TA.G30M, situated north of the Arctic Circle.

Driving the Dempster


2016-10-24

The Transportable Array deploys along a remote Canadian “highway”
USA STEM Festival, 2016

Fall 2016 Education Corner


2016-10-23

For every InSights issue, we feature two of the dozens of tools, modules, and activities that utilize EarthScope data to benefit a wide variety of users. We intend to reach K–12 and university educators, as well as informal programs like museums.
Aurora

A Magnetic Meeting of Space and Earth


2016-09-20

Magnetic storms, triggered by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetosphere, not only produce our aurora light shows, but can also induce electric fields in our planet’s subsurface.
Figure 1. About 16,000 pairs of shear wave splitting parameters in the study area. The orientation of the red bars represents the fast polarization direction, and the length is proportional to the splitting time (Liu et al., 2014).

Mantle Anisotropic Structure and Dynamics Beneath the Western United States


2016-09-19

Constraints from Shear-wave Splitting Analysis
Seismic velocity in the Earth along the slice BB’.  Red area contains material with low velocities that is rising up from deep in the Earth.

Hot, Wet Mantle Below the New Madrid Seismic Zone


2016-09-19

Science Nugget - By Charles Langston (University of Memphis), Christine Powell (University of Memphis), Steve Horton (University of Memphis), Heather Deshon (Southern Methodist…,

IRIS 2016 workshop participants gathered in Vancouver, WA, for a week of scientific presentations, discussions, field trips, and workshops.

IRIS 2016 Workshop


2016-09-01

Highlights Emerging Fields and Technologies in Seismology

2015

Installed seismometer and continuous GPS site. Canada

Supporting Earth Science in the Canadian Sub-Arct


2015-12-01

By Justin Sweet - Winter 2016

Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories are not known as hospitable land. This sub-arctic region, home to the Mackenzie Mountains project, presented

Install in Alaska. Klein

Alaska Bound


2015-09-22

Transportable Array migrates northward
Location of broadband seismic stations operating in the continental US before EarthScope (white circles). The Transportable Array leaves behind 260 new “legacy” stations (all non-white circles).

The Legacy of the USArray Transportable Array


2015-04-13

By Andy Frassetto, IRIS - Spring 2015

In the fall of 2003, before EarthScope began, approximately 200 modern broadband seismic stations operated across the contiguous United States,

Earthscope Globe

A Coast-to-Coast View of the Mantle Beneath the United States


2015-04-01

By Brandon Schmandt, University of New Mexico and Fan-Chi Lin, University of Utah - Spring 2015

One of the major observational components of the EarthScope program is the…

2014

Magnetotelluric Transportable Array and Backbone Location

USArray Continues Field Activities in 2014


2014-10-14

By Perle Dorr, IRIS - Summer 2014

Since the completion of the Transportable Array in the Lower 48 during fall 2013, USArray has focused on the creation of the Central and Eastern US

Earthscope Globe

Workshop Report: Modern and Ancient Basement Arches and the Connection to Flat Slab Subduction


2014-09-22

By Megan Anderson (CC), Kate Miller (TAMU), Susan Beck (UA), and Margarete Jadamec (UH) - Fall 2014

The structural dissimilarity between basement-involved arches and thin…

Earthscope Globe

Transportable Array Contributes to the Central and Eastern US Network


2014-03-22

By Perle Dorr, IRIS - Spring 2014

The National Science Foundation is funding the creation of a Central and Eastern US Network (CEUSN) for the purpose of obtaining long-…

Earthscope Globe

Earthquakes and Human Activities Addressing Public Concerns


2014-03-22

North Texas Earthquake Study Group, Southern Methodist University - Spring 2014

There is currently public, scientific, and policy concern regarding the recent increased…

Earthscope Globe

New Flexible Array Video Series


2014-01-01

By ESNO - Winter 2014

Geology might not be the first thing that comes to mind if you heard the names SESAME, CAFÉ, SUGAR, and OIINK, but these are just a few examples of…

2013

Earthscope Globe

USArray Reaches the East Coast


2013-12-22

By Maureen Long and Vadim Levin - Winter 2014

On October 1st 2013 the seismic and magnetotelluric observatory network USArray, which is a key element of the EarthScope…

Earthscope Globe

USArray Looks Back as it Looks Ahead


2013-09-22

By IRIS - Fall 2013

Ten years ago, the construction of USArray observatories officially began. This followed numerous community meetings, countless hours of meticulous…

Earthscope Globe

SPREE: A Seismic Study of Continental Modification


2013-06-22

Trevor Bollmann, Emily Wolin, Suzan van der Lee, and the SPREE Team - Summer 2013

Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Minnesota…

Earthscope Globe

USArray - Alaska Deployment Planning


2013-06-22

Terry Pavlis, UTEP - Spring 2013

On February 19 and 20 approximately 50 geoscientists met at the Pacific Geoscience Center in Sydney, British Columbia, to discuss…

Earthscope Globe

USArray Infrasound Data Products at IRIS


2013-06-22

By Manochehr Bahavar and Chad Trabant - Summer 2013

Diverse natural and man-made acoustic sources such as large explosions, rocket launches, and meteorites can act as…

Earthscope Globe

USArray Status


2013-03-22

By Perle Dorr, IRIS

With operating stations blanketing the southeastern states, the Transportable Array is on target to complete its journey across the contiguous US and…

Earthscope Globe

Chelyabinsk Meteor lit up the Transportable Array


2013-03-22

By Catherine D. de Groot-Hedlin and Michael Hedlin - Spring 2013

The large meteorite that entered Earth's atmosphere above Chelyabinsk, Russia last month drew attention…

Earthscope Globe

USArray Detects Hurricane Sandy


2013-01-01

By IRIS - Winter 2013

The USArray’s Transportable Array (TA) seismometers and barometers have documented ground motion and atmospheric pressure changes due to Hurricane…

2012

Earthscope Globe

Understanding Continental Evolution using Data from the Transportable Array


2012-09-22

By Dr.Hersh Gilbert - Fall 2012

Do high mountains possess thick roots of low-density crust that keep them a"oat in the denser mantle, or do zones of low-density mantle…

Earthscope Globe

Mineral, VA Earthquake Demonstrates the Passive Aggressive Margin of Eastern North America


2012-03-22

By Meghan Berg - Spring 2012

On August 23, 2011, the Mw 5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake rocked the east coast of the U.S. While moderate in comparison to recent mega-…

Earthscope Globe

Spring 2012 Facilities Status


2012-03-22

Spring 2012

USArray Status

The Transportable Array (TA) continues to roll eastward across the US. Having crossed the Mississippi River in March 2011, the TA will…

2011

Earthscope Globe

Seismic Tomography with USArray Data


2011-08-16

In its July 2011 issue, Popular Science ranked EarthScope the “most epic” big science project because of its ambitious scope: Exploration of the deep geologic structure and evolution of an entire continent.

2010

Earthscope Globe

U-Pb Thermochronology: 4-Dimensional Imaging of the North American Lithosphere


2010-03-22

As the USArray Transportable Array marches eastward, seismic images are providing ever more detailed insight into present day structures of the crust and mantle beneath North America. But how old are these structures and what do they tell us about the geo