Larger imageEquipment at the Cherry survey site

My interest in geology was sparked at the age of ten, but I don’t remember it occurring. The first geology field study that I attended was in Bishop, California with our school’s Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology class. The students were discussing when and how their interest in geology began, many agreeing that it started with their pet rocks. I recall saying, “You guys had pet rocks?” Later I discussed the conversation with my mother only to find out that I had a whole windowsill of pet rocks when I was ten. My name is Christina Velasquez; I’m an undergraduate student at California State University, San Bernardino. I will be graduating in June 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in both general geology and environmental geology. I am currently a student member of the Geological Society of America, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Inland Geological Society, and the Society for Sedimentary Geology. My primary fields of interest in geology are engineering geology and mining geology.

Larger imageWhite Mountain survey site.

Goals that I have set and hope to achieve are to graduate with honors from Cal State San Bernardino and to move on to graduate school. In September I will be applying to several schools including the Colorado School of Mines, and Arizona State University. Beginning career goals that I would like to achieve are to become the senior head geologist at a leading mine in the world and to specialize in engineering geology and hydro-geology.

Larger imagePits Survey Site.

My summer Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) intern project focuses on collecting Global Positioning System (GPS) data in the vicinity of the San Bernardino Mountains at fifteen survey sites. Very little existing GPS data are available for the San Bernardino Mountains. My measurements this summer, when combined with GPS data collected in 2005 by SCEC interns Amanda Lopez and Adam Skalenakis, will provide the first GPS velocity vectors for many parts of the San Bernardino Mountains. Forty-eight to seventy-two hours of data are collected at every survey site, and will be sent to the University of Arizona for processing. The project goal is to be able to monitor elastic strain accumulation in the area of the San Andreas fault. From the processed data, I will calculate updated velocity vectors for the GPS survey stations in the San Bernardino Mountains. I will then model slip rates on the faults in the vicinity to fit the new GPS velocity vectors that we obtain in 2008 along with vectors from the SCEC Crustal Motion Model Version 3. The modeling will help us to assess the partitioning of plate boundary slip between active faults in the vicinity, such as the San Andreas fault, the San Jacinto fault, and the Elsinore fault.

View field notes from other SURE Interns:   Select an intern... Alex Wilk Alexandra Millar Hannah Waterhouse Joshua Soble Lauren Steinberg Melissa Nunley Nathan Williams Patrick Dooling Trevor Thomas Tyanna Schlom