Presented by:

Ilias Gibigaye, E.I.

and Elvira Bella Canet
Graduate Student School of Civil Engineering
and Environmental Science

September 14, 2015

I INTRODUCTION
II PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
III ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
IV SCIENCE OBSERVATORIES
V REFERENCES

EarthScope is an Earthscience program for deep geoscientific exploration:

materials, operation and assembly of the Earth.

EarthScope encompasses:
Research on Fault Properties and the Earthquake Process
Strain Transfer
Magmatic and Hydrous Fluids in the Crust and Mantle
Plate Boundary Processes
Large-scale continental deformation
Continental Structure and Evolution
Composition and Structure of the Deep Earth.

EarthScope offers a centralized forum for Earth Science Education at all

levels and the opportunity to develop cyberinfrastructure to integrate,
distribute and analyze diverse data sets.
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Vision/Mission Statement
Our vision is to use North America as a natural laboratory to gain
fundamental insight into how the Earth operates. The complexity of
geologic processes requires contributions from investigators across
the Earth sciences working as individuals and as members of
multidisciplinary collaborative teams.
Our goal is to enable and encourage scientists to
study the Earth, allow innovative ideas to thrive, and
ultimately provide new insights into the past, present,
and future of the planet we live on.

Primary Functions and Major Contributions

Investigate fundamental questions about the evolution of continents
and the processes responsible for earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions.
Yield a comprehensive time-dependent picture of the continent far
beyond that which any single discipline or technology can achieve.
Support the most meritorious research in any relevant area,
including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, as well as
research involving international collaboration.

Budget and Funding

Stations: 48 contiguous States, Alaska and Puerto Rico
EarthScope employs roughly 110 full-timers comprising Engineers
and Scientists, and several hundred part-timers including students
and staff.
Total Construction Budget of the EarthScope Facility Network from
2003 to 2008 was $197 million
Current Operations and Maintenance budget is $25 million/year
EarthScope is funded by the National Science Foundation
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Figure 1: EarthScope Organizational Chart

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Example Projects
Start Date

End Date

Proposal #

Title

Organization

12/01/2014

11/30/2015

1461595

Collaborative
Research: Low-cost
imaging and analysis
of the August 24,
2014 M6.0 South
Napa California
earthquake surface
rupture (RAPID)

University of
California - Davis

09/01/2014

08/31/2017

1251667

Collaborative
Research: Imaging
Stress Transients and
Fault Zone Processes
with Continuous
Cross-Well Active
Source Seismic
Measurements at
SAFOD

William Marsh Rice

University

01/07/2014

06/30/2016

1345015

Using Dense Seismic

Arrays to Map Sharp
Features in the Deep
Mantle

University of
Southern California

Example Projects
Start Date

End Date

Proposal #

Title

Organization

01/04/2013

03/31/2016

1252085

The Seismic
Structure, Thermal
State, and Anisotropy
of the Crust and
Uppermost Mantle
Beneath the
Contiguous US

University of
Colorado at Boulder

06/15/2012

02/28/2014

1147427

Collaborative
Research: Strain Rate
and Moment
Accumulation Rate
along the San
Andreas Fault System
from InSAR and GPS

University of Texas at
El Paso

01/10/2011

12/31/2014

1063471

Facilitating New
Discoveries in
Seismology and
Exploring the Earth:
The Next Decade

Incorporated
Research Institutions
for Seismology

Partners
National Science Foundation (NFS)
UNAVCO
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

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EarthScope Facility (3 Science Observatories)

USArray
Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO)
San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) that

Collected Data:
Describe how geological forces shaped North Americas landscape
Contribute to the publics understanding of the Earths dynamics

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USArray (Seismic Data)

Continental-scale seismic and magnetotelluric observatory.
Foundation for integrated studies of continental lithosphere
and deep Earth structure.
Earthquake physics, volcanic processes, core-mantle
interactions, active deformation and tectonics, continental
structure and evolution, geodynamics and crustal fluids.
Consists of portable array of 400 seismometers deployed
across the USA.

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Figure 2: Transportable Array Station

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Figure 3: USArray Stations as of June 2015

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Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO)

Geodetic component of EarthScope project.
Studies the 3D strain field across the active boundary zone
between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates.
Enhances knowledge of physics that govern: deformation,
faulting and fluid transport in earths lithosphere.
1100 permanent GPS stations, 78 Borehole Seismometers, 74
Borehole Strainmeters (BSM), 26 Tiltmeters and 6 Laser
Strainmeters (LSM).

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Figure 4: PBO Instrumentation Network

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San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD)

Defines the conditions and physics of an active plate boundary
fault at depth.
The deep drilling component of EarthScope.
Aim: Information about processes that control faulting and
earthquake generation within a major plate-boundary fault.

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San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth

(SAFOD)
Sample: San Andreas Fault Borehole.
SAFOD borehole extends 3.2 Km
vertically and 1.8 Km horizontally.
Intersects the area of
microearthquakes.
Instruments measuring the physical
conditions under which earthquakes
occur.

Figure 5: San Andreas Fault

Borehole
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Figure 6: EarthScope GPS Geosensor

Figure 7: Main Borehole and Pilot Hole

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EarthScope (2015): www.earthscope.org

Alaska Earthquake Center (March 2015), From Crust to

Core: Earthscope comes to Alaska
http://www.usarray.org/files/docs/pubs/AlaskaYukon/TAinAK_v2_final-Mar2015-lores.pdf

National Science Foundation (2015): www.nsf.gov

Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (2015),

EarthScope: https://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/earthscope/

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