New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

EarthScope (www.earthscope.org) is a major NSF facility and science initiative to explore the Geophysical and Geological past and present of North America and general continental evolution. EarthScope includes the deployment of unprecedented numbers of high-quality seismic, geodetic, fault zone, magnetelluric, and strain instruments, while supporting broad research in Earth science, including education and outreach initiatives. EarthScope’s three principal facilities are: the Plate Boundary Observatory of permanent and campaign-style GPS stations and borehole strainmeters, the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth near Parkfield, California, and USArray, a continent-spanning seismograph and magnetotelluric array with both systematic (Transportable Array), and campaign-style (Flexable Array) components. Early results include new observations of geology and earthquake behavior on and around the San Andreas Fault, coupled seismic/GPS observations of episodic tremor in the Cascadia subduction zone, and near-field observations of eruptions at Augustine Volcano, Alaska. The ongoing initial buildup of 400 Transportable Array sites (121 sites as of 1/29/06) will span the conterminous U.S. from the west coast to approximately 109o W by 2007, and will begin to rotate into New Mexico in 2008. USArray data gathering activities are expected to continue for approximately a decade, with the focus of associated tomography, earthquake, and other scientific study proceeding from the western to eastern U.S. and thence to Alaska. Key anticipated targets for EarthScope in New Mexico include high-resolution seismic studies of the Rio Grande Rift and Socorro Magma Body, GPS studies of active deformation, and interdisciplinary studies of groundwater and gas geochemistry from mantle sources.