Here are some of the articles that have been recently posted to the PASSCAL website:

EarthScope EPIC Data Policy

November 1, 2017
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EPIC and EMRTC help BBC explain internal structure of Earth

In early May, a team from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) visited New Mexico Tech to use school facilities to support a new documentary on the current state of knowledge about the Earth's core.  Since seismology is the only practical method for probing the Earth's core, the team arranged the support of two of New Mexico Tech's facilities, the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC), and the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (EPIC), to demonstrate how the seismic waves from earthquakes or man-made explosions can travel through the Earth, and be used as a subsurface probing tool. The team was assisted by Dave Thomas and Mouse Reusch from EPIC, and Richard Aster from the NMT Earth and Environmental Science department.

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Software Resources

EPIC PASSOFT Software

EPIC provides open-source software for downloading seismic data from data recorders, for quality assessment, and for conversion to other data formats for analysis and archiving at the EarthScope Data Management Center.

PASSOFT is supported only for Mac and Linux operating systems, and not for Windows. Some Windows users have been able to use PASSOFT by first installing a Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Note - Python: We no longer support Python version lower than 3.9.

Note - MacOS: We no longer support MacOS version lower than 12 (Monterey).

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Magnetotelluric Systems at EPIC

Magnetotelluric (MT) methods are used to produce conductivity models of the crust and upper mantle through the recording of geoelectric and geomagnetic field variations at the Earth's surface. Depending on the period of the recordings, these methods can provide results from a few hundred meters depth (short period) to 30 km or deeper (long period). Conductivity is a physical property, which is complementary to seismic velocity, and which is very sensitive to the presence of fluids. When seismic and MT data sets are measured together, the additional data can dramatically improve determinations of the structure of the crust and mantle.

 

 

Since 2019, the EPIC (formerly known as EPIC) has been developing MT resources to meet PIs needs. We currently have a wide pool of MT equipment including both long-period (LEMI) and wideband (Phoenix) systems.

 

Nanometrics Trillium 120 Posthole Broadband Sensor

Note:  EPIC has purchased 11 Nanometrics Trillium 120PH seismometers.

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7th annual Polar Technology Conference coming to Albuquerque in March 2011

The 7th annual Polar Technology Conference will be hosted by EarthScope/EPIC on 24-25 March 2011, at the Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87110 USA. The primary purpose of this conference is to bring together Polar Scientists and Technology Developers in a forum to exchange information on research system operational needs and technology solutions that have been successful in polar environments.  This exchange of knowledge helps to address issues of design, implementation, and deployment for systems that are to achieve their research goals in the Polar Regions.

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"White Wanderer" Exhibit in Chicago joins Seismology and Art

An exhibit sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council has combined the work of University of Chicago seismological scientist Doug MacAyeal of with the art of Luftwerk, to produce an artistic rendition of the seismic "sounds" produced by climate change in the Antarctic. The exhibit opened with a live demonstration of seismic data acquisition, using instruments provided by EarthScope/EPIC. The project was a collaboration with NRDC, with additional help from the University of Chicago, and was on display at Two Riverside Plaza, Chicago IL from Sept 7th – Oct 1st. 

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TA Installation in Alaska Now Complete

After covering the lower 48 United States from coast to coast with a grid of nearly 1700 sites, the last seismic station of the EarthScope Transportable Array has finally been installed in Alaska. EarthScope has commemorated the event with a post titled "EarthScope’s Transportable Array Spans Alaska, the Last Frontier." The EarthScope article includes a detailed map of the Alaska TA stations, highlighting the location of the final station A19K. 

EPIC Intern Winds Up Summer With "Ultrasound" of Mt. St. Helens

Federica Lanza, a Ph.D. student at Michigan Technological University under Gregory P. Waite, spent the summer as the EarthScope/EPIC intern. During that time, "Fede" deployed instruments with EarthScope interns, presented her work at the 2014 EarthScope workshop, and completed two research projects related to short period sensor responses and long period noise analysis using PSD PDFs. Fede wrapped up her summer with a couple of weeks in the field at Mt. St. Helens, supporting the iMUSH project, along with several other EarthScope/EPIC scientists and staff. Some highlights of our intern's busy summer follow.

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AGAP Project Reveals Details of Hidden Antarctic Mountain Range

 

EPIC's Polar Group supported AGAP deployments in one of the most extreme polar environments on the planet.

Results are now emerging from the AGAP Project, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Office of Polar Programs. AGAP, which stands for Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province, has been probing the Gamburtsev mountain range for years. These mountains, completely covered by Antarctic ice, were not even discovered until 1958. New data now coming out are showing that these mountains have a youthful topography much like that of the Alps in Europe, and have not been weathered significantly.  Furthermore, the history of the root of the range can now be tracked back to one billion years in the past, with major rejuvenation events in the Permian and Cretaceous periods (~250 and 100 million years ago respectively). One reason the Gamburtsev range is important is that it is believed to be the initial site of Antarctic ice-sheet growth during major climatic changes some 35 million years ago.

Researchers Andy Nyblade of Penn State and Douglas Wiens and Patrick Shore of Washington University in St. Louis are part of the seismic portion of the project, called GamSeis. The EarthScope/EPIC provided an array of broadband seismic stations used for the project by Wiens and Shore, along with Penn State's Nyblade, and Masaki Kanao of the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR).

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