first core site

we are at our first coring station. core station 1. 42 26.2755 North
and 125 16.6160 West (distal to the Rogue River Canyon fan apron).
this is in the location of Core RR0702-31PC (approx), collected in
2002. we have good 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profile data and can count the
turbidites in this seismic profile (since we have cores from this site
and have a good idea as to the thickness and depth of the larger
turbidites, which we can see in the seismic profile). we counted ~18
turbidites on the screen above what we suspect is the Holocene (based
on the cores we already have). awesome!!!

i am in the computer lab taking notes in the core station data sheet.
these notes will be essential in the future to work out any confusion
that may develop. (may = will)

it is really nice to have internet access!

i am no longer sea sick. the weather is perfect (albeit a little warm;
i am not complaining, just noticing,,, hahahaha). the seas are gentle.
good omen for the cruise. peace out...

samoa tsunami of 2009

here are some wave amplitudes as measured form the ambient sea level
(not peak to trough). you can see this was a rather small tsunami. i
looked at the CMT and it looks like it had normal fault slip, so a
small tsunami would be expected.

LOCATION LAT LON TIME AMPL
------------------------ ----- ------ ------- -----------
EASTER ISLAND CHILE 27.1S 109.3W 0342UTC 0.25M/0.8FT
CHARLESTON OR 43.3N 124.3W 0528UTC 0.13M/0.4FT
PORT ORFORD OR 42.7N 124.5W 0509UTC 0.17M/0.6FT
SOUTH BEACH OR 44.6N 124.0W 0545UTC 0.09M/0.3FT
SHEMYA AK 52.7N 174.1E 0456UTC 0.10M/0.3FT
CRESCENT CITY CA 41.7N 124.2W 0605UTC 0.21M/0.7FT
ARENA COVE CA 38.9N 123.7W 0459UTC 0.33M/1.1FT
PORT SAN LUIS CA 35.2N 120.8W 0531UTC 0.30M/1.0FT

hasta

still in transit, but trying to solve problems

well, yesterday i was quite sea sick. i heard my noisy time in the
head registered a 9 on the noise scale... ahh, the porcelain goddess.
i am feeling much better after having stayed in my berth horizontally
for all day.

the coring techs left some back-up equipment at osu. we were gonna
meet a ship at the buoy off newport, but the tsunami warning systems
are still screwed up. the hawaii center and the alaska center gave
conflicting reports, so the people in newport were not able to leave
port to deliver the equip to us. and,,, the person in charge of this
ship would not give permission to enter the harbor as they were not
very well informed about the tsunami hazard. it passed beneath us a
couple hours ago. of course, the best place to be is in a ship at sea.
the tsunami was probably around 5-20 cm peak to trough.

it will be interesting to see what panic ensued back at humboldt. it
reminded me of the strike-slip earthquake a couple yrs back (in the
Gorda plate). i noticed it was in the upper 6's and a strike slip
event, so i told my neighbors there was no reason to evacuate manila.
apparently, people drove all the way up fickle hill. the likelihood of
a damaging tsunami from that event was basically nill, yet the media
really hyped it up. of course, we found out how poorly coordinated the
tsunami hazard mitigation officials were during that event. the news
stations (radio and tv) did not have a unified message and there was
much confusion. i even spoke with some geologists who thought there
was potential for a damaging tsunami. i did get some great pics of the
sunset at the beach that night, right around the travel time for the
tsunami arrival in manila. hahaha

ok, back to work...

up and down with the sea

we just passed the mouth of the strait of juan de fuca and are now
heading south to our first core site. we have placed waypoints
(coordinates that the ship will head for, our 'route') so that we will
acquire new multibeam data (bathymetry, backscatter, etc.) in regions
that are not currently covered by previous mapping efforts.

our first core site is in the Rogue Canyon, just offshore the mouth of
the Rouge River. during the last ice age, when the sea level was lower
(~130m), the river actually connected to this underwater canyon. since
sea level rose following the melting of the ice sheets, the upper
canyon filled in with transgressive sediments and the continental
shelf was also covered in these sediments. so, the canyon is not
currently directly connected to the river.

more later, emergency now... jay

at sea (or, at "sound")

we are away from the dock now, have passed through 3 drawbridges. we
are currently at the locks, gonna go down ~20 feet to the level of
puget sound.

water is smooth currently, but a low pressure is moving in and we
should get some waves tonight. i have one bottle of ginger caps...
forgot the other 2...

hasta

departure morning

good morning! Sunshine!

2 mins until breakfast. 17 mins until science crew muster in main lab.
8am leave port. 9am 1st draw bridge opening. then several locks, lake
washington, and finally puget sound....

more later, :-)

still at dock

well, we got all the equipment installed and running, so we are just
sitting around. soon we will be going to check out the boeing museum
and pike street market on our day off. had great bfast at aqua verde.
good beans and good coffee. last night i had a couple good
margerittas. (i am using internet explorer, it really sucks as a
browser, dunno why anyone still uses it, but firefox is not loaded on
this computer.

we set sail at 8am manana. but, the drawbridges cannot be opened until
after 9am for seattle commuter traffic... then we have 1.5 day transit
time to our first core site, off the Rogue River in the Rogue Canyon.
happy sunday everybody!

blessings, jay

almost ready

i am about 1/4 done packing. i have about an hour and a half to complete the rest. the compliment of the science crew is already on their way to Seattle. i have an acupuncture appt at 1:30. ill pick up Handoko around then and Ashley at PDX on the way to port. more later, jay

--  Jason ‘Jay’ R. Patton Active Tectonics Laboratory College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University 104 COAS Admin. Bldg., Corvallis, OR  97331 541.753.0421 h 707.498.4290 m 

packing time

The rest of the crew is packed. I am not.

cascadia / san andreas cruise (2009)

Getting ready for another cruise. We are going to core offshore the Mendocino deformation zone (MDZ). We will be investigating the paleoseismic history of the southern Cascadia subduction zone (SCSZ), the northern San Andreas fault, the Mendocino fault, and possibly various other crustal faults. Goldfinger and others have cored in this area before, but never focusing on just this region. Seattle is our port and we will be cruising aboard the R/V Tommy Thompson, from the University of Washington.

 

http://www.ocean.washington.edu/vessels/TGT/tgt.html

 

Cruise dates are mon 28 Sept through wed Oct 14, with 1.5-2 days transit time before and after coring.

 

More regular updates are about to arrive.

 

Cheers, jay