Established over 17 years ago, the Institute for Crustal Studies was conceived as an interdisciplinary unit focused on the Earth's crust: the evolution of the crust through time and space as discerned from an integrated geological-geophysical perspective, the natural resources contained within the crust and at its surface, and the natural hazards that result from geological processes acting within it. Today, the Institute for Crustal Studies spans a broader swath of disciplines than ever before and is building initiatives that bridge between geophysics, geology, and engineering, as well as expanding into new research areas, such as Earth surface processes, astrobiology, and cosmogenic nuclide dating. ICS researchers have also expanded their project sites and are presently working on every continent. In this past year, UCSB graduate and undergraduate students traveled to Antarctica, Norway, Chile, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru to undertake thesis projects. With this enhanced international presence, ICS scientists are collaborating with increasing numbers of scientists and educators around the globe.

The pre-Christmas earthquake at San Simeon reminded us that UCSB is situated in the midst of a dynamic boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. Within 24 hours, UCSB researchers were in the San Simeon area deploying seismometers from our Portable Broadband Instrument Center to measure aftershocks and to provide a better picture of the rupture area and post-seismic slip. Given the inexorable movement between these plates (about 2 inches a year), more quakes are sure to follow. Although the societal impact of the San Simeon quake was quite limited due to the dispersed population in the epicentral region similarly sized earthquakes in urbanized areas, like Santa Barbara, can be devastating.

Photo of the inauguration of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation site for structural engineering and site response. ICS PI Steidl is in the center of the photo. In the back left is the test platform, a shake table, where structural designs can be tested, while nearby are many drill holes that house bore-hole seismometers to measure ground shaking during natural earthquakes and artificial shaking events. Over 30 high-school students from inner city schools in southern California attended the opening ceremony and toured the facilities.

Despite some decades of study, key scientific and engineering questions remain about earthquake behavior, site responses, and appropriate building design. ICS has been a driving force in a major initiative as part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). Over the past two years, ICS researchers have developed permanently instrumented field sites for the study of soil-foundation-structure interactions during seismic shaking. The overarching goal is to generate analytical and empirical models for accurate simulation of how the ground responds and deforms when shaken by earthquakes and to understand how this seismically induced shaking affects building structures and foundations. Two complimentary approaches have been developed: intensive monitoring of natural earthquakes with down-hole seismometers and construction of large “shake tables” to allow active shaking of both structures and the nearby ground during controlled experiments.

The $2M construction phase of the NEES project was brought to a successful completion this summer and was marked by a colorful ribbon-cutting ceremony that, in addition to researchers from several universities, included NSF and NEES program directors, the widow of George Brown (for whom the network is named and whose work in Congress was instrumental in supporting science and technology research), school teachers, and inner-city high school students. Over the next 10 years, NEES will provide ~$5M to ICS to run the experimental site, to maintain the instrumentation, and to develop and implement new technologies.

Gory Baybeiche Range in central Kyrgyzstan, where ICS researchers are studying the evolution of river networks and the efficacy of glacial erosion

In the field of evolution and earth history, a major meteorite impact is now quite widely accepted as the likely cause of the demise of the dinosaurs and the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous some 65 million years ago. Although other large-scale mass extinctions have occurred in the past, the cause of these events has remained obscure. Consequently, considerable publicity was generated this year when an ICS astrobiologist published evidence that the 250-million-year-old Permo-Triassic extinction (the greatest mass extinction on record) was apparently synchronous with another massive meteorite impact. The evidence derives from the brecciated continental shelf off of NW Australia where seismic data, drill core, and new radiometric dates converge to support an impact hypothesis. New funding is now being applied for to explore this geologic province more fully and collect data that can support or refute the impact interpretation. Popular web sites were created for this research, as well as for an “Antarctic Journal” for a NASA-sponsored project.

ICS’s participation in the Southern California Earthquake Center assumed a new dimension this year when Professor Ralph Archuleta was appointed as SCEC’s deputy director. Although less than 10% of ICS’s funding now comes from SCEC, this dynamic organization remains as one of the intellectual pillars of ICS. Many ICS researchers are involved in SCEC-related research, and SCEC has helped push the “earthquake community” forward along several new initiatives. Plans are now underway for SCEC III: the next 5-year reincarnation of this Science and Technology Center.  Dr. Archuleta was also fêted in Laramie, Wyoming in celebration of his receiving an award as the Outstanding University of Wyoming alumnus.

Several education and outreach initiatives of note occurred this year with ICS participants. The NSF-sponsored Educational Multimedia Visualization Center is creating increasingly sophisticated educations animations to help describe topics ranging from the evolution of pygmy mammoths on the Channel Islands to the dynamics of the continental margin. Through another NSF grant, oceanographic problems are being explored in undergraduate courses using enhanced computerized databases. Nearly 100 tapes in high-definition format have been shot for a NOVA-style movie on the interactions of climate, erosion, and mountain building in the Himalaya. Over the past several years and under the aegis of ICS researchers, three elementary and secondary schools in Nepal have been adopted as “sister” schools of Goleta classrooms, where exchanges of letters, maps, and art supplies are enhancing cultural understanding on both sides of the Pacific. This past year, graduate students involved in ICS projects in Nepal sponsored a fundraiser in order to buy new equipment for these Nepalese schools. As a consequence, new microscopes, as well as equipment and supplies for physics and chemistry demonstrations, meteorology measurements, and biology instruction, were delivered to the schools in May. Look for an article about these efforts in the November issue of Geotimes.

2003-2004 was a time of great success for several ICS research scientists. Four of them have garnered so much attention as professional researchers that they received offers as tenure-track professors at other universities. These researchers have now departed for the University of North Carolina, the University of Aberdeen, the University of Montana, and San Diego State University. Another ICS researcher accepted an offer from Caltech to run several major geodetic networks in the western US and Asia.

We are proud of these ICS researchers whose success bespeaks the high quality of their research efforts. We note that we expect to add 3-4 new researchers during the coming academic year, and thereby we hope to compensate for the loss of a very successful group of researchers this past year. There has been a short-term downside for ICS, however: not only did we lose a core of excellent colleagues and researchers, but ~$1.1 M of funded grants followed these researchers to their new institutions. As a result of that loss, the new funding at ICS in 2003-2004 (~$3.3 M) is less than last year. When looked at as part of a long-term trend, however, the trajectory is still clearly upward and representative of a major change over the past 5-6 years.

Value of new ICS research awards (dark blue bars) since 1987. 2003-2004 marks a decrease from the previous year when a $2M grant was received. The light blue bar represents the funding that came into and then went out of ICS as 6 researchers departed for faculty jobs or researcher scientist jobs elsewhere.

Current expenditures, core budget, and value of grants administered

Long-term change in the value of research awards administered by ICS. Note doubling of average award value every few years

These long-term changes in terms of research funding and volume ramify throughout the administration of ICS: last year, 129 projects totaling over $13M were administered in ICS (>50% increase in 5 years); 101 proposals for a total of ~$20 M were submitted to 41 different funding agencies. Our part-time CNT now administers more than 110 network connections in four different buildings, he services at least 3 operating systems, and he runs all of the back-up and systems maintenance operations.

We are hopeful that our administrative personnel has stabilized after several changes during the past year.  Our former Analyst I (T. Bennett) has been replaced by Lynn Clark. Our AA III Nicole Craig moved to the Office of Research in mid-year and was replaced by Lynette McCoy. In order to meet the growing demands for purchasing, payroll, and travel at ICS, we are using internal ICS funds to augment this position to full time. Given the present level of external funding through ICS and the intrinsic need to perform these tasks in order to permit organized research, the Office of Research should find a way to convert this AAII position to full time.

In sum, this has been a successful year at ICS marked by excellent scholarship, success with new grants, and national recognition of the quality of our researchers. Given the overall growth in funding, grant throughput, and computing demands, ICS administrative and computing personnel have received insufficient increases in staff support to adequately meet the demands of the enhanced activity levels in all areas. Without increased support to the core budget, this problem is likely to be exacerbated in coming years.