Seminars

UCSB On-campus

 

July 2, 2002

Use of handheld digital mapping technology for graduate and undergraduate field courses, by Nathan Niemi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

September 24, 2002

Rupture Dynamics: Dynamics and ground motion generated by non-planar fault geometries by Hideo Aochi, Laboratoire de Geologie, Ecole Normale Superieure.

 

December 2, 2002

Erosion and exhumation in the Indian Himalaya from cosmogenic isotope inventories of river sediments by Mike Bickle, Cambridge University.

 

December 4, 2002

Calibrating the role of glaciers in landscape evolution (focus on Kyrgyzstan) by Michael Oskin, University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

December 4, 2002

Structural geology of the Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan, by Richard Heermance, University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

December 5, 2002

Surface expression of thrust faulting in eastern Iran: source parameters and surface deformation of the 1978 Tabas and 1968 Ferdows earthquake sequence by Richard Walker, Cambridge University.

 

January 15, 2003

Arroyo San Fernando: An upper cretaceous mid-slope valley-levee complex built within and out of a submarine canyon by Mason Dykstra, University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Stratigraphy and sedimentology of a latest cretaceous/early Paleocene fan delta sequence, Canon San Fernando by Grant Yip, University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

March 7, 2003

Process of Fault Growth: Implications from Afar Normal Faults by Isabelle Manighetti, Institut de Physique du globe de Paris.

 

March 6, 2003

Rupture Dynamics Modeling by Professor Miyatake and Dr. Ide, earthquake research Institute, Tokyo.

 

May 29, 2003

The tectonometamorphic evolution of the High Himalaya, NW India by Martin Robyr, University Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

June 4, 2003

The formation of fault gouge by Jim Brune, University of Nevada, Reno.

 

June 11, 2003

The formation of fault gouge by Jim Brune, University of Nevada, Reno.

 

June 18, 2003

Precarious Rocks-a Geological/Physical Constraint on Ground Motions by Jim Brune, University of Nevada, Reno.

 

 

June 25, 2003

How experiments in foam rubber mimic dynamic fracture of real earthquakes by Jim Brune, University of Nevada, Reno

 

 

Off Campus-Invited Lectures

 

Large Crater Structures Offshore of Southern California”, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico, by Nicholson, C., M.R. Legg, R. Milstein, C. Goldfinger and M.J. Kamerling.

 

Miocene Craters and Active Faulting Offshore of Southern California”, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, by Legg, M.R., C. Nicholson, R. Milstein, C. Goldfinger and M.J. Kamerling.

 

Intracontinental mountain building in the Tien Shan, University of California, Los Angeles by Douglas W. Burbank, November 15, 2001. (Omitted from last year’s annual report).

 

Coal Oil Point seep field: An example of mega seepage, NATO Advanced Workshop on “Hydrocarbon Seeps and Slicks in the World Ocean and the Caspian Sea”, by Jordan Clark, October 2002.

 

Managed aquifer recharge: A 21^st century solution to water shortage, Board of Trustees & UCSB Foundation, by Jordan Clark, October 2002.

 

Opening of the Gulf of California Denudation off the Colorado Plateau as Coupled Crustal System, Northern Arizona University, by Michael Oskin, November 2002.

 

Using data in a General Ed Oceanography Class, pre AGU workshop entitled: Using Data in Earth Science Education. Convened by D. Mogk and C. Manduca, San Francisco, by William Prothero, December 2002.

 

Symmetry in micromagnetics, AGU National Meeting, San Francisco, by Andrew Newell, December 2002.

 

Sources of groundwater in an alpine catchment, Rocky Mountains, USA, AGU National Meeting, San Francisco, by Jordan Clark, December 2002.

 

Assessing contaminant susceptibility near artificial recharge operations by imaging flow paths and transport times with geochemical tracers, AGU National Meeting, San Francisco, by Jordan Clark, December 2002.

 

Dynamics of very large natural bubble plumes: Observations from the Santa Barbara Channel, University of Chicago, by Jordan Clark, January 2003.

 

Calibrating Climate, Erosion, and Feedbacks, Keynote lecture, Penrose conference on “Interactions of climate, erosion, and tectonics”, Taiwan, by Douglas W. Burbank, January 14, 2003

 

Catchment Stream Chemistry: The Importance of Groundwater, Coast Geological Society, by Jordan Clark, February 2003.

 

Continental Rupture and Formation of Ocean Basins: Insights from the neotectonic evolution of the Gulf of California by Michael Oskin, Louisiana State University, January 2003, University of California, Santa Barbara, February 2003,University of New Mexico, March 2003, North Carolina State University, March 2003.

 

Calibration of glacial Landscape Evolution, by Michael Oskin, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, March, 2003, Florida State University, April, 2003.

 

Relaxation times for single-domain grains with mixed uniaxial and cubic anisotropy, AGU/EGS Joint Assembly, Nice, France, by Andrew Newell, April 2003.

 

Timing, magnitude, and rate of extensional unroofing at the Sierra Mazatan metamorphic core complex, Sonora, Mexico: Results from 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology, GSA Cordillian section meeting special session titled: Tectonics, structure, and geophysics of the Gulf of California/Salton Trough region, By Martin Wong, April 1, 2003.

 

External geometry and Internal architecture of Mass-transport complexes, and the creation of ponded Turbidites on the Slope, International Association of Sedimentologists, by Ben Kneller, April 28, 2003.

 

Arroyo San Fernando: an upper cretaceous mid-slope valley-levee complex built within and out of a submarine canyon, International Association of Sedimentologists, by Ben Kneller, April 29, 2003.

 

Geochemical imaging of flow near the Forebay recharge operation, Orange County, SARWQ Meeting, by Jordan Clark, April 2003.

 

Identifying local flow within regional flow systems using dissolved noble gases, radiocarbon, and stable isotopes, Los Alamos National Laboratory, by Jordan Clark, May 2003.

 

Building the Nepalese Himalaya: interactions of climate, tectonics, and erosion, Noye Johnson Memorial Lecture, Dartmouth College, by Douglas W. Burbank, May 12, 2003.

 

Calibrating Orogenic Growth: Insights from the Kyrgyz Range, Tien Shan, University of Oregon, Eugene, by Douglas W. Burbank, May 22, 2003.

 

Building the Nepalese Himalaya: interactions of climate, tectonics, and erosion, University of Oregon, by Douglas W. Burbank, May 22, 2003.

 

Application of Geochemical Techniques for Determining Groundwater Travel Times near Artificial Recharge Sites, 11^th Biennial Symposium on Groundwater Recharge, by Jordan Clark, June 2003.

 

A Gas Tracer Study in the El – Rio Spreading Pond: Ventura County, California, 11^th Biennial Symposium on Groundwater Recharge, by Jordan Clark, June 2003.

 

Searching for glacial aged seawater, UCSB-LANL CARE workshop, by Jordan Clark, June 2003.

 

Surface processes and exhumation rates: erosional controls on tectonic rates, invited keynote talk, Gordon Conference on “Interior of the Earth”, Mt. Holyoke, by Douglas W. Burbank, June 11, 2003

 

Workshops

 

March 14-16, 2003 Nepal workshop held at UCSB

Interaction of tectonics, erosion, and climate along a transect from Tibet to the Himalayan foreland. Organized by Prof. Burbank of the Institute for Crustal Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

July 18-19, 2002 Keck Symposium held at UCSB,

Friction, Fracture, and Earthquake Physics organized by Ralph Archuleta and Jean Carlson of the Institute for Crustal Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. The Keck Program for Interdisciplinary Studies in Materials Physics and Seismology at UCSB is aimed at developing a better understanding of the Physics and Materials Science underlying: Friction, Fracture, and Earthquake Physics.  The program is nearing the end of its third year; the symposium is aimed at identifying new opportunities for collaboration and progress in these. The symposium brought together a group of physicists, engineers, materials scientists, and seismologists for a series of lectures and informal discussions aimed at identifying new opportunities to develop connections between theoretical, numerical, and experimental advances in our fundamental understanding of friction, fracture, and deformation, and seismological applications of these results.

 

 

Research Experience for Graduates

 

Thirty-seven graduate students are involved in research administered through ICS.  These students are involved in field research both locally and internationally. Many have presented their research with talks or posters at professional meetings: e.g., American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, Seismological Society of America, annual Southern California Earthquake Center.  In addition to the abstracts presented, ICS graduate students are also involved as co-authors on articles in referred journals.

 

Robin Whatley received an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant. The major objective of the study is to produce a comprehensive phylogeny of all Early, Middle, and Late Triassic rhynchosaurs, including abundant new fossils of the previously fragmentary taxon from Madagascar and newly and/or incompletely described taxa from Argentina and Brazil. A second objective is to analyze patterns of dental evolution within this ubiquitous group of Triassic herbivores. Proposed activities resulting from this research include: travel to South American, German, and South African rhynchosaur collections, detailed examination and description of dental and skeletal characteristics, construction of an all-encompassing data matrix of characters scored from first-hand observations and measurements, and parsimony and multivariate analyses to assess phylogenetic relationships within the Rhynchosauria. Because rhynchosaurs have been used extensively to correlate Triassic terrestrial faunas worldwide, the projected impacts of this study go well beyond the benefits of an inclusive reassessment of rhynchosaur evolutionary histories. The results of this research will help establish a worldwide biochronologic correlation of the newly discovered Middle or Late Triassic fauna from Madagascar with roughly contemporaneous faunas (particularly those found in Argentina and Brazil), and will potentially yield insights into Triassic biogeographic linkages in the Southern Hemisphere during this important time of diversification in the fossil record.

 

Robert Decesari participated in a marine geology and geophysical investigation in the eastern Ross Sea, Antarctica. This included sites surveys for drilling from the Ross Ice Shelf into the seafloor beneath it. The survey will include long profiles and detailed grids over potential drill sites. Also observations of present day sedimentary processes beneath the ice shelf in newly exposed areas. The research team prepared for drilling from the Ross Ice Shelf that will answer questions about the evolution of the East and West Antarctic ice sheets, Antarctic climate, global sea level, and tectonic history of the West Antarctic rift system.

 

Karen Blair has received a UC MEXUS Dissertation Grant. Her project proposes to expand the study of mid-Tertiary extensional basins in east central Sonora, Mexico.  The detailed structural and lithologic mapping, stratigraphic, sedimentologic and 40Ar/39Ar geochronologic analysis of the sedimentary and volcanic sequences as well as the Mesozoic basement in the Sahuaripa area will provide data with which to reconstruct the local geologic history as well as comparison of seemingly similar adjacent basins such as the Rio Yaqui basin.

 

Martin Wong has received a UC MEXUS Dissertation Grant to study the Sierra Mazatan metamorphic core complex in Sonora, Mexico. Sonora is part of an area that has undergone Neogene crustal extension that progressed to continental rifting in the Gulf of California.  The Gulf of California region is an ideal natural laboratory in which to study continental extension and rifting processes because extension and rifting occurred fairly recently, preserving extension/rift-related structures and deposits. The goals of this project are to determine the precise timing and magnitude of large-magnitude extensional deformation in the Sierra Mazatan metamorphic core complex, located in the Sonoran part of the rifted margin.  These data will provide important insights on the extensional history that lead up to rifting in the Gulf region.

 

Nathan Onderdonk participated in a USGS supported research project that attempted to document the deformational history of the western Big Pine and Pine Mountain faults to determine their characteristics and significance as boundary structures of the rotated western Transverse Ranges block. This research produced a geologic map and provided the first detailed field examination of the nature and structure of a rotated microplate boundary in California.

 

Ken Davis spent two months on the South Island of New Zealand studying scaling and displacement geometries in thrust faults. Working with Dr. Burbank and a UCSB undergraduate, he used differential GPS and geologic mapping to survey a suite of faults spanning a 50-km swath on the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps.

 

Kris Broderick's research focuses on shelf-slope deformation in Santa Monica Bay, CA. He is using seismic reflection and well data to create 3D models of faults and folds in this portion of the inner Continental Borderland.  Newly mapped blind thrust faults, and their kinematic relations to known strike-slip faults, may have significant implications for seismic hazard analyses in southern California.

 

Kenichi Tsuda is analyzing ground motion data from the Yokohama city high-density accelerometer network.  This network of 150 surface accelerometers and 9 borehole accelerometers is the most concentrated set of ground motion recorders in a small area, ~20 km x 20 km.  He is determining the site response and source parameters for 30 events that have been recorded across the network.  His objective is to determine the spatial variation of ground motion and its relation to physical parameters such as depth of basin, distance to basin edge, local shear wave velocity in the upper 20 m, etc.  These results are applicable to other areas, in particular the Pacific Northwest, which has a similar geological and tectonic environment.  

 

Shuo Ma has been developing 3D finite element codes to simulate an earthquake dynamic rupture.  Using dynamic rupture models for different faulting mechanisms he has found that the model results for radiated energy are not in agreement with teleseismic observations.  While one would naturally defer to observations versus models, the observations are the product of many assumptions including simplified models of the earthquake source.  Ma has also been building a hybrid model for wave propagation that merges finite element and 4th order staggered grid finite difference.  This approach will allow maximum flexibility for modeling the earthquake source using finite elements while taking advantage of the efficiency of the finite difference scheme for propagating elastic waves in the bulk of the medium.

 

Beth Pratt-Situala, working with Dr. Burbank, is using cosmogenic nuclide exposure-age dating to reconstruct the record of river incision in the central Himalaya. She has discovered that, despite the sustained bedrock incision by rivers over the past 100,000 years, there are major pulses of sedimentation that inundate the river valleys with sediment and create massive river terraces.  These gradational episodes appear to be driven by increases in the strength of the Asian monsoon.

 

7,800-Mile Field Trip

Nepal’s Annapurna mountain range in the Himalayas was then-junior Michelle Garde’s research lab for eight weeks in spring 2002. Garde (left, in back) was field assistant to Beth Pratt-Situala (left, front), a graduate student working under the supervision of Douglas Burbank, geology professor and director of the Institute for Crustal Studies. Burbank is leading an eight-university team studying interactions between climate, erosion, and mountain building in the world’s highest mountains.

 

 

Nepalese village in the vicinity of field research site. Graduate student researcher Beth Pratt-Situala is taking a picture of a young boy with the digital camera. He was delighted to see himself.

 

 

 

Research Experience for Undergraduates

 

Twenty-two undergraduate students are involved in research administered through ICS.

Five undergraduate students are involved in administrative work through ICS.

 

Kristen Whitney worked for the Portable Broadband Instrument and the Santa Barbara Array, which has nine operational stations throughout the city of Santa Barbara.

 

The Institute administered three National Science Foundation sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU). Research Experiences for Undergraduates grants fund travel costs and stipends for undergraduates while engaged in research:

 

· Professor Burbank secured an REU research project on Scaling and Displacement for Thrust Fault in New Zealand. Undergraduates assisted Professor Burbank and Graduate Student Researcher Ken Davis with field research in the Southern Alps of New Zealand.  Studied changes in fault scarp morphology along a thrust front and used a differential GPS survey tool to make detailed 3-D images of the fault.

 

· Michelle Garde participated in Professor's Burbank's research project on Geomorphic-Geodynamic Coupling at the Orogen Scale: A Himalayan Transect in Central Nepal. She assisted Graduate Student Researcher Beth Pratt-Situala for eight weeks with stratigraphic analysis, glacial geologic mapping, and cosmogenic radionuclide sample collection as well as how to operate a laser range finder, hand-held GPS, and inclinometer.  During the last few weeks she developed a stratigraphic study of her own giving her the opportunity to apply her sedimentary and geomorphic knowledge to determine the genesis of the deposits and whether they display the same climate forcing mechanism found other regions.

 

· Professor Luyendyk secured an REU for six undergraduates to gain experience with a marine geology and geophysical investigation in the eastern Ross Sea. This undergraduate research experience takes place in Antarctica aboard the RVIB Nathaniel Palmer, the cruise will last for twenty eight days and Professor Luyendyk’s team will attempt to acquire single-channel and multi channel seismic, piston cores, multibeam and deep towed chirp sonar and side scan sonar.

 

For the second year in a row the research projects administered at the Institute have been featured by the Office of Research publication on undergraduate research opportunities. This

year’s Office of Research Publication of Undergraduate Research featured professor

Luyendyk and his students in Antarctica.

 

 

Cover: Extreme Research Very cool by any measure, a four-week expedition to Antarctica gave five undergrads, two graduate students and their faculty mentor a chance to explore new areas of the ocean floor in the minus 15-degree Antarctic summer of January 2003. Prepping for National Science Foundation-supported research in the coldest, windiest, highest, driest continent on earth included medical exams, full dental tune-ups, and a mandatory geophysics course. Led by Bruce Luyendyk, professor of Geological sciences and principal investigator in UCSB’s Institute for Crustal Studies, the research team prepared for drilling from the Ross Ice Shelf that will answer questions about the evolution of the East and West Antarctic ice sheets, Antarctic climate, global sea level, and tectonic history of the West Antarctic rift system.

 

 

Public Service Activities

 

The Press

 

Science, November 15, 2002 volume 298, page 1316. News of Week Article: A Triumph! Here is documentation that geologists and engineers, working together, can reduce environmental damage from a natural event, by John C. Crowell, Professor of Geology Emeritus.

 

Santa Barbara News-Press, Friday November 22, 2002 On the Move: Lorne G. Everett, a research Hydrologist at the Institute for Crustal Studies at UCSB, was presented the C.V. Theis Award for major contributions to groundwater hydrology by the American Institute of Hydrology. He is a past president of the Science & Engineering Council of Santa Barbara.

 

Schools

 

Outreach Listing:

The Academic Outreach Office in the College of Letters and Science Educational Resources Catalog for K-12 Schools.

Title: Earthquake Presentation

Presenter: Variable/ Institute for Crustal Studies (ICS)

Description: Institute for Crustal Studies researchers will give presentations on earthquakes to schools in the local area. Depending on the class size, presentations can be made in the classroom or at UCSB. Students will learn about different types of earthquakes and will have the opportunity to record their own earthquake. A limited number of presentations are available each year. Scheduling: For more information or to schedule a presentation, contact Giulia Brofferio, ICS, 893-8281, giulia@crustal.ucsb.edu. Intended Grade Level: All

 

The Institute has an outreach website.  http://www.crustal.ucsb.edu/ics/outreach/

 

The quiz found at, http://www.crustal.ucsb.edu/ics/outreach/understanding/quiz/, has received 167,000 hits by 36,008 different users from January 2003 to September 2003.

 

 

March 21, 2003

Mr. Warren's fourth grade class from Ellwood Elementary School visited the institute and learned about the various types of faults and wave that comprise earthquakes.  The hands on interactive presentation included information about various seismometers and other equipment used to study and record seismic activity. Students generated their own seismic recording. Nathan Niemi, Craig Nicholson and Aaron Martin did the presentation.

 

 

Mark Warren’s class jumps it up to create the seismogram shown below.

 

The seismogram produced by Mark Warren’s 4^th graders jumping as a class.

 

January 31, 2003

Seventy-five Ellwood School sixth graders visited the institute and learned about the various types of faults and wave that comprise earthquakes.  The hands on interactive presentation included information about various seismometers and other equipment used to study and record seismic activity. Ken Davis, Alison Duvall, Craig Nicholson and Beth Pratt-Situala did the presentations,

 

Geology Graduate Student Researcher Beth Pratt-Situala has organized Nepali-California school exchange. Along with her geological PhD research in Nepal, ICS graduate student, Beth Pratt-Situala, has been promoting an exchange between three 6th grade classes in Goleta and 3 schools in Nepal.  Prior to leaving for a fall 2002 field season, she visited each Goleta school twice to give slide shows and talks about Nepali geology and culture.  The Goleta students and teachers wrote letters to the Nepali students and donated books and art supplies.  Maplink (a Goleta-based map warehouse) donated >$300 worth of map seconds.  In Nepal she and Doug Burbank visited three schools in the Project field area, delivered the letters and supplies, and talked to the students and teachers.  The reception was overwhelmingly friendly.  The schools there have very few teaching supplies so all was appreciated.  The teachers seemed especially interested in acquiring more science supplies.  The Nepali students wrote back to the California students.

Upon return to California, Beth delivered the letters to the Goleta schools and talked more about the science and culture of Nepal.  The Goleta students have written a second set of letters for delivery to Nepal during Willy Amidon's spring 2003 field season.