#FieldPhotoFriday Another beautiful (though unseasonably warm) trip out to one of our stations near Porterville. The crew went out last week to replace a number of pieces of equipment and made some upgrades, as well as cleared up some water damage. Great work and nice to see data rolling in again!
#FieldPhotoFriday You'd think a trip to the mountains would help escape the heat, but that's not always the case here in SoCal! Even in the heat the SCSN field crew keeps the network running, no matter the elevation!
#FieldPhotoFriday We've shared plenty of remote stations, now how about one closer to home! The SCSN would not have the coverage and station density needed to rapidly locate and distribute earthquake alerts if not for our many installations right in some folks backyards!
#FieldPhotoFriday traveling to other places and @nature.org wonders this Friday! Such cool research being done here in the tall grass prairie to determine the impacts of various uses, grazing, fire - oh my! 🌻🌾🐂🦬🔥
#FieldPhotoFriday Fun fact: SCSN seismic stations use GPS timing synced to atomic clocks on satellites. This keeps data from 400+ stations perfectly aligned when an earthquake occurs. A recent visit near Castaic fixed a station whose GPS clock had drifted out of sync.
#FieldPhotoFriday Most people don't think of islands when they think of SoCal, but we do have plenty just off shore, and they are one of the more crucial places for a seismic site due to how difficult it is to maintain equipment on the sea floor! Santa Barbara Island makes for a great workplace!
View from a small fixed-wing plane. A gray-blue strip of the North Pacific ocean fills the bottom edge of the scene. A narrow strip of beach is cut in half by a river emptying into the ocean. Tree-covered moraine rises behind the beach. A lake sits behind the moraine on the left of the image with the edge of the Malaspina Glacier (with alternating bands of dark moraine and white ice) is visible just behind the lake. The front of the St. Elias Mountains sits in the distance. Most of the scene is cloudy, but sun is shining down on the snow and ice of the mountains.
A beach, with grass and trees on the left and mist-covered surf on the right, fills the lower half of the image. The beach is a mix of rocks and sand with some driftwood. A line of tracks stretches long the beach. In the background, the snow and ice covered St. Elias Mountains rise.
A beach with gray sand and rocks. Very fresh bear tracks, with foot pads and claws quite visible, runs down the middle of the dry sand. To the right of the fresh tracks there are additional tracks that are partially worn away. This appears to be a popular bear route.
A yellow survey tripod holds a white GNSS antenna. A large yellow Pelican case at the bottom holds a GNSS receiver. A white garbage bag next to the Pelican case holds a battery to power the station. Vegetation, some of which was prickly, surrounds the tripod. Trees fill the background behind the site.
Going through old field photos and found these from a trip to survey a benchmark near the Malaspina Glacier. When we landed on the beach, we discovered that an unwelcome field assistant had recently come through. The pilot kept watch while I set up the site. #FieldworkFriday #FieldPhotoFriday ⚒️🧪
#FieldPhotoFriday Sometimes flipping a switch is all it takes when trying to remedy a down station, if only the breaker that had flipped was local! The field crew stopped by this station near Jurupa Valley to diagnose and fix it, flipping the breaker and adjusting some cables is what did the trick!
#FieldPhotoFriday Some stations really take a hike to reach! Our team recently trekked to a mountaintop site in Joshua Tree to replace a failed cell modem that had knocked it offline. After the climb, the data are flowing again. Great work, as usual! These pics are from an earlier install trip.
#FieldPhotoFriday We share SCSN fieldwork and Seismo Lab research to highlight both the work that keeps SoCal’s seismic network running and the science that grows from it. What other field photos would you like to see in future posts from the team? Here’s a recent visit to a station near Thermal.
#FieldPhotoFriday Recently, Field Techs Alberto and Daniel took the SCEDC team into the field for a site visit! It was a chance to step away from the computers and see where the seismic and station data they work with is created. SCEDC maintains the data; the field crew maintains the stations.
Sometimes #FieldPhotoFriday really is in a field! The Field crew recently went to this station near Playa del Rey to install a CalOES radio and antenna. The regular telemetry upgrades are crucial to keep our stations communicating with home base, just as crucial as the seismic equipment itself!
#FieldPhotoFriday is back! Cold mountain air, wide-open views, and one of our seismic stations high above the Banning area. Not a bad office/field location! Beautiful scenery and a great place to keep watch on Southern California’s seismic activity.
Photograph of Kalv Glacier at the head of Pia fjord, with Mount Darwin towering above the glacier. A rare crystal-clear day in the heart of Cordillera Darwin.
For this #fieldphotofriday, I share a photograph of Pia fjord, Cordillera Darwin, southern Patagonia, 2012. I was very fortunate to work here with Brenda Hall, Tom Lowell, George Denton, and the late Charlie Porter. Our paper on the chronology of rapid deglaciation is now published. Link follows…1/
Happy December! Throwback to some fieldwork in Idyllwild, where the pine trees around this station bring the winter atmosphere to California all year long! #FieldPhotoFriday
#FieldPhotoFriday We all know that weather doesn't cause earthquakes, RIGHT?!, but it can affect seismic stations. From flooding, to wind, fires, and more, our stations are out in the elements. Recent storms blocked the sun long enough to show us that this station may need some battery maintenance!
With the shutdown over, our USGS partners, half of the SCSN, are back in the field!
One of their first stops: a remote station that had its electronics stolen. Hard to know why, since most parts are only useful for seismology, but it’s a reminder of the challenges for the SCSN!
#FieldPhotoFriday
#FieldPhotoFriday from our station near Hector Mine! Installed in 1997, two years before the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake. It recently got a new battery. Getting up the steep, sketchy road was no small feat, but the crew made it just in time before this week’s rain rolled in!
This week’s #FieldPhotoFriday is near Big Pine. One of the oldest seismic stations in the SCSN, Installed in 1932 and operated from a building more than 100 years old, it recently received new equipment to keep high-quality data flowing. A historic site still hard at work for seismic safety today!
Happy #FieldPhotoFriday! Our field crew has been working hard to update multiple pieces of equipment at this station near Ventucopa, and a new datalogger finally got everything up and running. This maintenance keeps our network up to date and ready for shaking, so we can all be better prepared!
#FieldPhotoFriday With the weather cooling a bit, lets show at a site that is normally pretty hot, looking lush through years of field visits! This station near Murrieta is in a nursery so it's always got a good view of the city and greenery! I'm sure the crew likes the change.
#FieldPhotoFriday With the weather cooling a bit, lets show at a site that is normally pretty hot, looking lush through years of field visits! This station near Murrieta is in a nursery so it's always got a good view of the city and greenery! I'm sure the crew likes the change.
Annotated views from my research on submarine volcanic eruption and eruption products at West Mata volcano, Tonga, showing a few of the many styles of activity we see at this small yet very active volcano, and a current image of me :) Sources for all images: Kenna Harmony Rubin
West Mata 🌋 shots 4 #FieldPhotoFriday, described in ALT text. AI calls me an “Oceanographer 🌊 passionate about volcanoes, deep-sea science 🧪, community engagement & inclusivity,” then asks: “Are volcanoes just angry mountains? Is the government hiding underwater volcanic alien civilizations?” Hmm 😜!
Today’s #FieldPhotoFriday takes us to the desert near the Brawley Seismic Zone, where one of out our seismic stations recently received a new datalogger. Fieldwork in these conditions can be tough, but thanks to the combined efforts of Caltech Seismo Lab and USGS staff, the network stays strong!
#FieldPhotoFriday Not all of our seismic stations are out in the desert or up in the mountains, a vast amount are actually in or on state, federal, or private properties like schools, fire stations, museums, and more! Like this station near New Cuyama at a school, recently visited and updated!
#FieldPhotoFriday Recently the crew got to go somewhere different than the desert! Up in the mountains of Santa Barbara one of our stations needed new batteries and a new datalogger. Excellent work as usual keeping our massive network reliable and ready for any shaking!
Pink granite erratic resting on white granite boulders.
Pebble-sized welded tuff erratic with oxidized rind resting on white granite-dominated till pavement.
Pure quartz pebble resting in white granite till pavement.
Small quartzite boulder on pink granite boulder cairn within the North Peaks of Katahdin. Note that this is an erratic boulder that was then moved and placed atop a cairn by humans.
Glacial erratics of various shapes, sizes, and lithologies. From fieldwork one week ago on the Katahdin massif, north-central Maine.
#fieldphotofriday
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#FieldPhotoFriday Another week, another hot desert trip for the field crew. Our station out near Needles needed some preventative maintenance to make sure it is up and ready whenever the shaking starts! A highlight of these trips are the unmatched sunrise and sunset views. Photos from past visits.
Nate (left) and Pete (right) sampling a glacial boulder resting on the ridgeline. Great Basin of the Katahdin massif in the background.
Panorama of Katahdin’s Basin Ponds (lower left), Great Basin (center), Hamlin Ridge (center foreground), Hamlin Peak, and the headway of North Basin (right).
Pete (center) and Nate (right) heading back toward camp at Chimney Pond from Blueberry Knoll, after a fun scramble off of the ridgeline and bushwhacking through dense spruce forest.
Just returned from a few days of sampling #glacial erratics for 10Be dating on the spectacular north ridge of North Basin, Katahdin, with @umaine.bsky.social undergraduate Nate Teerlinck and former UMaine Ph.D. student Peter Strand.
#fieldphotofriday
#fieldworkfriday
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