SCEC Award Number 11179 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Data Gathering and Products)
Proposal Title SCEC Borehole Instrumentation Program
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Jamison Steidl University of California, Santa Barbara
Other Participants
SCEC Priorities B5, A4, B4 SCEC Groups Seismology, GMP
Report Due Date 02/29/2012 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 The SCEC borehole program, which began early on in SCEC1, continues to be a highly leveraged and collaborative effort between SCEC and other agencies to maintain the existing network of borehole stations in California and to facilitate the integration of this data into CISN and the SCEC data center. The borehole program is highly leveraged, taking advantage of the resources of other programs and agencies that are active in monitoring southern California earthquake activity. The philosophy behind this seismology data monitoring infrastructure program is that all data should be integrated with the existing network infrastructure for real-time transmission, processing, and archival. This provides all researchers with access to the data as soon as it’s made available from the network operators. The networks benefit from the use of the borehole data, as the borehole waveforms tend to have lower noise giving rise to cleaner arrivals, making them well suited for determining earthquake locations. As has been the case for many years, joint monitoring efforts continue between SCEC and the US Geological Survey and Caltech through ANSS, NSMP, and CISN, and the California Geological Survey to maintain the existing network of borehole stations. Other collaborators include the EarthScope PBO program at UNAVCO, the NSF funded NEES and HPWREN programs, as well as an NSF funded research project to image the San Jacinto Fault zone, which has been leveraged along with USGS funding to include the installation of additional borehole sensors along the San Jacinto.
Intellectual Merit A goal of earthquake engineering research is to generate analytical and empirical models for accurate prediction of ground response and ground deformation and to understand how these ground motion predictions affect the built environment. A required element for the development of these models is well-instrumented test sites where actual ground response and deformation, can be monitored during earthquake shaking to provide benchmark case histories for model development and verification. The attenuation behavior of near surface soils becomes especially important as we move from long period simulations of ground motions to hybrid or broad-band calculations of ground motions that include the effects of the near-surface geology. Instrumented sites with both surface and downhole sensors play an important part in improving our understanding of the near-surface geology and its affect on ground motions.
Broader Impacts The SCEC borehole instrumentation program has continuously utilized students at UCSB in both geophysics as well as engineering departments to assist with the maintenance and installation of borehole sensors in southern California, and in doing so, helping to provide hands-on training to the next generation of the Earth Science workforce. The borehole program has also enhanced the infrastructure for research though making the borehole array data available via multiple online mechanisms, including archival at the SCEDC.
Exemplary Figure Figure 2. Graduate and undergraduate students working on borehole sensor and cable upgrades in Borrego Valley, CA.