Field Campaigns

This project deployed six broadband seismic stations in southern Costa Rica, providing unique sampling of the Cordillera Talamanca region. Data are presently available from IRIS DMS, network TC.  Banner of the page shows dedication of the team, servicing seismic station SAJE in the dark. 

Some photos from field trips: seismic, gravity, geodesy, photogrammetry, cultural:  (stand by, fixing photo albums...)

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORTED TO NSF

To date three papers came out describing research produced using these data:. 

Bourke, J., V. Levin , I. Arroyo, and L. Linkimer, Evidence for Caribbean Plate subduction in Southern Costa Rica, Geology, accepted 12/22/22, online 03/02/23, https://doi.org/10.1130/G50796.1

Bourke, J., V. Levin, L. Linkimer, I. Arroyo, A Recent Tear in Subducting Plate Explains Seismicity and Upper Mantle Structure of Southern Costa Rica, 2020, G^3, first published November 12 2020 DOI 10.1029/2020GC009300

Levin, V. S. Elkington, J. Bourke, I. Arroyo and L. Linkimer, Seismic anisotropy in southern Costa Rica confirms upper mantle flow from the Pacific to the Caribbean., Geology, accepted Bastille Day (July 14)  published September 4, 2020; DOI 10.1130/G47826.1 

Colloquial name: Quebec – to – Maine over Three Sutures, or QMIII

Part of the Earthscope. a national research program.

A collaboration with William Menke (Columbia) and Fiona Darbyshire (UQAM)

Photo Galleries of field work: 

Quebec &  Maritimes (stand by, fixing photo albums)

Data from the QMIII seismic array operated in the course of this project contributed to studies of crustal and upper mantle structure along a ~1200 km long transect that crossed three major tectonic elements of the North American continent. The project supported a PhD thesis by Xiaoran Chen, MS theses by Benjamin Dunham and Yiran Li, and offered independent study opportunities for four undergraduates. A publication on the likely upwelling in the upper mantle beneath New England (Levin et al., 2018) generated a remarkable degree of interest in popular science publications and general mass media.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORTED TO NSF

Publications Levin et al., 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023; Chen et al., 2018;2021a; 2021b; Gilligan et al., 2016; Boyce et al., 2016; Menke et al., 2016

Seismic data collected by the project are publicly available through the IRIS Data Management Center (doi:10.7914/SN/X8_2012).

A collaboration with  Steven Roecker (RPI), Peter Molnar (U Colorado, Boulder) and China Earthquake Administration Tibet Bureau.

Photo galleries of field work, Tibet scenery, Lhasa, Beijing 

A broadband seismometer array operated in Western Tibet was used to construct tomographic images of the upper mantle, showing that lithosphere of India does not underthrust the entire area surveyed in a uniform manner, and where it does - the image appears like a vertical drip not a continuous sheet (paper by Razi, 2016). Also investigated was the layered structure of the very thick crust (Levin 2008, Razi 2014), the nature of the northern boundary between TIbet and Tarim basin (Levin 2013), and the anisotropic properties of lower crust of TIbet (paper by Duret). 

Data set stored at IRIS  / Earthscope Data center: 10.7914/SN/Y2_2007

Publications:

Razi et al., 2016; 2014

Levin et al. 2013 2008

Duret et al., 2010

a multidisciplinary study of Northern Apennines

Funded by NSF-Continental Dynamics

This large project combined numerous disciplines (tectonic reconstructions, geomorphology, geochronology, geodesy, and geophysics) in a program of studies aimed at understanding how the northern Apennines have formed, evolved and are presently supported. The key technical goal was a detailed investigation of a tectonic process (called slab rollback) that is commonly believed to operate in this area. 

A geophysical component of the study involved the deployment and operation of a ~50 node passive broad band seismic array. This part of the work was performed in collaboration with Jeffrey Park (Yale), the staff of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) (A. Amato, L. Margheriti, S. Pondrelli, F. P. Lucente, D. Piccinini, N. Piana Agostinetti, S. Salimbeni), and

researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Geophysics (Jarka Plomerova & Vladislav Babuska).

Array operated continuously from October, 2003 through August, 2006, with variable configuration.

Data are presently stored in IRIS DMC archive, and are open to all.

Photo galleries: FIELD WORK  SCENERY

Papers related to this project: Bianchi et al., 2010; Benoit et al., 2011; Levin et al. 2002, 2007a 2007b   ; Margheriti et al. 2006, 2014 ; Plomerova et al.  2006 ;  Piana Agostinetti et al., 2008; Piccinini et al., 2010; Salimbeni et al. 2007, 2008, 2014;