[2025] Geo-sightseeing around Basin and Range province in the western US

In June 2025, I followed visitors from National Central University, Taiwan, to do geo-sightseeing in Utah related to the Basin and Range! We saw volcanic eruptions during (pic 1-2)/after (pic 3) the Lake Bonneville and metamorphic core complex with so many ductile deformation features (pic 4)!!

Not to mention the nice re-visit to FORGE (pic 5) and Blundell powerplant (pic 6) and the unexpected encounter with sand dunes (pic 7)!

Will we be able to dive deeper into the volcanic features in Utah sometime?

[2023] Strain measurements from dark fiber along light rail in Salt Lake City

The data is collected using the TERRA15 Interrogator (model: TERRA15 Treble). The fiber connects the University of Utah campus and the Downtown data center (875 West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT) installed below the TRAX red line (light rail system of Utah Transit Authority). The data shows that the fiber is not coupled well to the ground, but some TRAX signals can be spotted.  

(Left): Strain rate of the whole cable. Time is measured from May 25, 2023, 18:45:00. Distance is the distance from the end of the cable, which is FASB of the University of Utah campus.

Access the data from here: Lin, F.-C., & Kim., H.J. 2024. Distributed Acoustic Sensing Using Dark Fiber along TRAX Red Line in Salt Lake City. The Hive: University of Utah Research Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.7278/S5d-kgxx-ev8y

: should say, this is a picture taken by the interrogator 😅

[2024] Geophone Array Deployment at FORGE in Milford

Deployment of 16 geophone patches around the Utah FORGE area during March 27–29, 2024 The nodes will stay for a month to study microseisms from the stimulation experiment in April 2024. In the meantime, these will record signals that can be used for structural analysis...!

[2023] Geophone Array Deployment in Salt Lake City

Deployment of 65 geophones (three-component) around the Salt Lake Valley and nearby basins for a year from May 2023.

This project will continuously record ground motions for a year by replacing the sensors every month.

photo: the last round of node recovery at Albion basin

Targeted area: Salt Lake City area/ Red Butte Canyon/ Albion basin 

[2023–] Nodal Array Deployments 

While staying at University of Utah, I encountered many geophones and their data sets to study subsurface of the earth.

photo: fairfield nodal (ZLAND 3C 5 Hz) being deployed.