Seismic work in the Talamancas
As Steve mentioned in the previous blog, our project at the seismological center in UCR consists in analyzing seismographs recorded by seismic stations in the country. As of now, it is our duty to study about 250 earthquakes and be able to improve the accuracy of the epicenter locations for each of the seismic events. More than 300 hundred seismic events have occurred since last year all over Costa Rica, but for now, Steve and I have been assigned 250 seismic events that occurred in the Southern region of Costa Rica. So far, we have managed to get acquainted with the software necessary to read and interact with seismic data and soon will be able to get our hands on this project. Finding the precise locations of epicenter is crucial for understanding the sources of these seismic events and future aftershocks given the fact that the tectonic setting of the region is very complex (subduction + strike-slip etc etc..)
Another project assigned to us is visiting different seismic stations throughout the country and making sure they are in good condition. We visited two seismic stations on July 11th, ran a thorough checkup and changed SD cards that at the time were full. These memory cards are 4GB each and they record up to 7-8 months of seismic data. Visiting the seismic stations was a bit challenging since the two stations were located at very high elevations somewhere in the Talamanca mountains. This was a very enriching experience for me and Steve. We enjoyed the landscape, driving on very steep slopes and learning how seismic stations work.
During our visit to the seismic stations, we also had the chance to interact with nature by going on a small hike, wetting our feet in freezing river water, sleeping in cabins, some bird/dog watching and eating LOTS of delicious food.
Nos vemos pronto!.- Joyce