By Iqbal Pittalwala, University of California - Riverside
An earthquake expert at the University of California, Riverside is leading a team of seismologists and volcanologists to conduct an experiment in Alaska that will record a variety of seismic events in that state. The experiment will also help better describe the characteristics of the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone, one of the most seismically active regions in the world that is also home to many active volcanoes.
"In spite of being a hot-spot of earthquake and volcanic hazard, this area is poorly studied because of its inaccessibility, remoteness and rugged terrain," said Abhijit Ghosh, an assistant professor of geophysics in UC Riverside's Department of Earth Sciences and the research project's principal investigator.
Called the "Aleutian Array of Arrays," the project began collaboratively between UCR, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey. It was launched last year when the researchers set up 19 seismic stations within a 1 kilometer-square area on one of the Aleutian Islands. This seismic array of stations acts like... Read more