Director's Statement

The goals of the ICS include achieving an increased understanding of the crust and lithosphere of the earth by utilizing the approaches of many disciplines and the expertise of scientists in academia, government, and industry.

Current Mission of ICS

The current mission of the ICS is to provide the research leadership, organizational structure and facilities to promote the cooperation of scientists from various research groups and organizations on problems concerning the earth's crust. The research agenda of the ICS comprises the study of crustal structure and tectonics, crustal materials, earthquakes, and hazardous waste disposal,.

Contribution to the Instructional and Research Mission of the Campus

Research Highlights: Section E below outlines some of our more notable projects during this past year. Many ICS projects are concerned with earthquakes and seismic hazards. Some of the projects outlined in Section F are: Predicting strong ground motion from nearby earthquakes; seismic hazards in the urban areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura; and seismic hazards represented onshore deduced from studies offshore. We have also started an earthquake information project with the Alexandria Digital Library this past year (Section F). An expedition to Tibet gathered detailed information relating to crustal deformation from the collision of India with Asia. Offshore from the UCSB campus ICS researchers, studying the second largest natural marine hydrocarbon seeps in the world, determined that the emission rate from this seep field is equal to all the vehicle tailpipe exhaust emissions in Santa Barbara County.

Graduate Studies: ICS continues to involve significant numbers of graduate students (15 in 96/97) in thesis research projects that range the full gamut of our research agenda from earthquakes to hazardous waste. Graduate students are studying active faulting in the Santa Barbara area and seismic hazards for our own campus. Others are studying tectonics in the remote Brooks Range of Alaska. Students present their results at national meetings supported by ICS research grants. Last year five students presented papers at the Fall national meeting of the American Geophysical Union, one at the national Fall meeting of the Geological Society of America, and one at the Spring meeting of the Seismological Society of America.

Undergraduate Studies: ICS continues to involve undergraduate students in our research program, totaling 24 last year. These students are largely working independently and are not only assistants. Many are involved in independent research (see Section F below) including the UCSB FRAP program, and the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program. For Summer 1996 we had three undergraduates selected to be interns at ICS for the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). They did independent research on topics including ground motion expected from earthquakes, to mapping fault lines in the Santa Barbara Channel. Six undergraduates have participated in the UC Campus-Laboratory Collaboration project (Sections F and G) to determine the seismic hazards on our campus.

Responding to the needs of the public

ICS activities respond to public interest in several ways including specific research projects (Section G) and public outreach (Section F). Our research agenda and activities in earthquakes and environmental quality are of vital public interest.

Earthquakes: ICS has an active outreach public program on earthquakes, described later on in Section F. We are frequently interviewed by the media to comment on earthquake events and issues. We are in the process of studying seismic hazards for the UCSB campus. In addition, we started a new digital library project focused on dissemination of earthquake information to scientists and the lay public (Section F).

Air and Ocean Pollution from Marine Hydrocarbon Seeps: Offshore from UCSB are some of the largest natural submarine hydrocarbon seeps in the world. This natural seepage is responsible for local beach tar and air pollution. ICS is studying these seeps to quantify their impact and to describe their behavior.

Remediation of Hazardous Waste: ICS collaborated with Santa Barbara County and consulting firms to submit a successful proposal to the EPA Brownfields Program. This program is aimed at funding the environmental characterization of land areas contaminated by hazardous waste releases in order to provide a basis for contaminated site remediation leading to the reclaiming of useful land (Section F).

ICS Historical Perspective

Ten Year Anniversary: On April 18th, we celebrated our tenth year as an organized research unit. ICS hosted a reception at the University Center with guest speakers, France Cordova, Bruce Luyendyk, John Crowell and Ralph Archuleta. Dr. Cordova honored Bruce with a plaque for his efforts to found the Institute and his years of dedication. The end of this first ten years also marks the end of Bruce's term as director of the Institute. Bruce will continue his leadership role at the University as the Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences. In the interim, while ICS searches for a new permanent director, Ralph Archuleta has agreed to take on the role of Acting Director for the Institute.

Personnel Including Students: Last year ICS had on its roles 15 faculty and 22 Professional Researchers as Principal or Co-Principal Investigators. The number of PIs has seen steady growth over the past ten years, mostly by the addition of Professionals (Fig. 1). The number of scientific associates from other institutions and visitors to ICS has also grown steadily reaching 27 last year (Fig. 1). This past year we had a long-term visit from Prof. Rick Sibson, head of the geology department at Otago University, New Zealand, and an expert in faulting.

Over the years our members have distinguished themselves by securing grants and national and international honors. During last year Art Sylvester was awarded the UCSB Foundation Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in Mathematical, Life and Physical Sciences for 1997, Frank Spera was elected a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, Ralph Archuleta was elected president of the Seismological Society of America and appointed to the National Research Council, Committee on Seismology, and Tanya Atwater was elected to the National Academy of Science. Lorne Everett was awarded the A. Ivan Johnson Outstanding Achievement Award by the American Society for Testing and Materials, Committee D-18 on Soil and Rock, and the highly valued "Green Thumbs Up" award from the U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command for his contributions to the Hydrocarbon National Test Site Advisory Committee. Bruce Luyendyk was honored for his ten years of dedication and service as the Director of the Institute for Crustal Studies in a ceremony at the University Center in April.

Our student roles have grown steadily over the past ten years (Fig. 1). Our undergraduates have secured their own honors; Marcy Davis was awarded the William Bushnell Memorial Scholarship from the UCSB Department of Geological Sciences and Carmen Alex was accepted into the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) Program, sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Operation History: This past year ICS managed 54 projects worth over $6 million. Our growth in both these categories continues at a steady rate (Fig. 2). We submitted 65 proposals last year requesting almost $6.4 million. Our success rate is well above national averages. Well over three-quarters our requests were awarded last year, which is a substantial increase in the success rate of our PIs (Fig. 3).

A landmark event in our history occurred this past year when we exceeded the $2 million level in new awards received for the year.

This past year also marked the ten year anniversary of ICS. During the ten years, we moved location three times; from two offices on campus, to 5,400 sq. feet in the Hollister Research Center, to 4,100 sq. ft. in Girvetz Hall. Our total revenues for that period totaled about $14.6 million (Figure 4); our total publications numbered 274 at the close of 96/97. At present ICS has almost 90 people on its roles, plus 27 visitors and scientific associates. We can add to this almost 170 alumni that have come through our institute over the past ten years. This shows the significant impact we have had on the intellectual environment of our campus.