http://www.iris.edu/hq/news News and Announcements for IRIS. en-us Copyright 2008 2008-08-08T19:03:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/arizona_receives_grant_to_adopt_eight_transportable_array_stations http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/arizona_receives_grant_to_adopt_eight_transportable_array_stations#When:18:03:00Z The Arizona Geological Survey and its partners at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona were awarded nearly $500,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to acquire eight Transportable Array stations. As part of EarthScope, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), 58 temporary seismic stations were deployed in Arizona in 2006 and 2007. These stations are scheduled for removal beginning in October 2008, after about two years of operation. The seismometers will then be installed in another location as the network rolls eastward across the US. The “Adopt-A-Station” program, facilitated by USArray in cooperation with NSF, encourages seismic networks, educational institutions, and other entities to purchase one or more of these proven stations before their scheduled removal date. For the cost of the equipment, the new owner can use the station to expand an existing seismic network or as an educational resource. As a condition of the adoption, the new owners agree to continue making the data freely available via the IRIS Data Management Center. More than 25 Transportable Array stations have already been adopted in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and Utah. The FEMA grant will enable the Arizona consortium to purchase and maintain eight of the highest quality and most strategically located EarthScope stations currently operating in the state. The data recorded by the stations will be analyzed and interpreted by the Earth science teams at the three universities and used to update Arizona’s earthquake risk assessment. In addition to the three-year FEMA grant, the Arizona Geological Survey and its partners are contributing $172,000 in matching funds. This is the first time the emergency management sector has provided financial support for expanded seismic monitoring through the Adopt-A-Station program. The Arizona Geological Survey has posted a web page and press release about their initiative, has a blog that includes EarthScope-related news and was interviewed by Channel 12 TV in Phoenix. TV station KPHO Channel 5 also reported on the Arizona program. Arizona State University and the University of Arizona are members of the IRIS Consortium. For more information about the Adopt-A-Station program, contact Robert Busby. Some of the Transportable Array stations currently installed in Arizona.   2008-08-08T18:03:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/new_real_time_data_server_at_the_iris_dmc http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/new_real_time_data_server_at_the_iris_dmc#When:12:16:00Z The IRIS DMC has installed a new server for real-time data feeds using the SeedLink and LISS protocols. Users currently getting data from the DMC using these protocols will need to redirect their collection software to the new server.  The old server will be shut down on August 31st 2008. For more details, see http://www.iris.edu/dms/dmc/. 2008-08-05T12:16:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/anne_meltzer_appointed_to_chair_the_iris_international_working_group http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/anne_meltzer_appointed_to_chair_the_iris_international_working_group#When:18:31:00Z   After consulting with the IRIS Board of Directors, David Simpson has appointed Anne Meltzer as the new chairperson of the IRIS International Working Group.   Arthur Lerner-Lam has chaired this IRIS Presidential Committee since it was established in 2006. Under Art's leadership, the Working Group coordinated the long-term instrument loan initiative, organized the Out of Africa workshop, participated in activities of the Global Risk Identification Programme, and prepared a prospectus of further "international" activities for IRIS. Art will continue as a member of the group. The International Working Group was established to develop activities that simultaneously address IRIS's mission and the missions of organizations focused on international economic development, including government agencies, development banks, and private foundations. As the new chairperson, Anne plans to build on the prospectus that the Working Group has already prepared, and will develop a White Paper that lays out specific goals for IRIS in cooperating with international development agencies and suggests a timeline for reaching milestones. 2008-07-25T18:31:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/the_american_academy_of_arts_sciences_honors_two_former_iris_board_members http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/the_american_academy_of_arts_sciences_honors_two_former_iris_board_members#When:12:37:00Z Thorne Lay, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and immediate past Chair of the IRIS Board of Directors, and Paul G. Richards, Mellon Professor of the Natural Sciences at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and a member of the IRIS Board of Directors, 1988-1990, were elected to the 2008 Class of Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Recognized as leaders in seismology, Lay and Richards are among 212 new members of the Academy and two of the nine fellows in the Astronomy and Earth Sciences section.   Lay is known for his contributions to our understanding of the structure of the Earth's interior, the physics of earthquakes, and mantle dynamics, and for the development of methods for verifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. He also discovered that the core-mantle boundary and back-arc basin regions are laminated.   Richards studies seismic waves from earthquakes and nuclear weapon test explosions to explore the internal structure of the Earth, to quantify seismic hazard, and to demonstrate capabilities to monitor nuclear arms control treaties. He and Xiaodong Song discovered evidence in 1996 that the Earth's inner core is rotating faster than the Earth's surface.     Lay and Richards, along with the other new members, will be inducted at a ceremony on October 11, 2008, at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the American Academy is an independent policy research center that undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current studies focus on science, technology and global security; social policy and American institutions; the humanities and culture; and education.     2008-07-17T12:37:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/iris_board_of_directors_appoints_a_nominations_committee_for_2008_elections http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/iris_board_of_directors_appoints_a_nominations_committee_for_2008_elections#When:20:41:01Z Elections for important positions on the IRIS Board of Directors will be held during the Annual IRIS Membership Meeting in San Francisco, California, on December 15, 2008. This year, members will elect three Directors who will each serve for three years. Members of the IRIS community are encouraged to contact the Nominations Committee with suggestions for candidates for these open positions. The Board-appointed Nominations Committee consists of one Board member and three community members: Charles Ammon (Chair)Penn State Universitycja12@psu.edu Richard AllenUniversity of California, Berkeleyrallen@berkeley.edu Elizabeth CochranUniversity of California, Riversidecochran@ucr.edu Tom Owens University of South Carolinaowens@seis.sc.edu The Directors whose term expires this year are: Charles Ammon (Vice-Chair) - completing a three-year termAnne Sheehan (Member) - completing a three-year termBrian Stump (Member) - completing a one-year term As described in the elections procedures of the By -Laws, the Nominations Committee "shall prepare a slate of one or more nominees for each Director position to be filled." Prior to the Annual IRIS Membership Meeting on Monday, December 15 (during the Fall AGU Meeting), Member Representatives will be informed of the candidates and provided with details on the voting procedures. Continuing Directors are: Susan Beck - Chair (2010)Kenneth Creager (2009)Don Forsyth (2010)James Gaherty (2009)Steven Roecker (2010)Suzan van der Lee (2009) A list of current IRIS Committee Members can be found at: http://www.iris.edu/hq/audience/committees Thank you for your continued involvement in the activities of your Consortium.   2008-07-16T20:41:01-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/iris_welcomes_new_staff_members http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/iris_welcomes_new_staff_members#When:19:16:00Z Rick Callender is IRIS' new Graphics and Media Specialist, having started May 27, 2008. Rick graduated from Maryland College of Art and Design in Silver Spring, MD, with an A.A. and received his B.F.A. from Indiana University in Fort Wayne, IN. He has worked as a professional and freelance graphic designer for public and not-for-profit organizations and now brings his 8-plus years of experience to IRIS. Lisa Green joined IRIS on July 1, 2008, as Senior Accounting Analyst in the Business Office. For the last 13 years, she was an Accounting Manager with The Weinberg Group Inc., a Washington, DC-based scientific and regulatory consulting firm. Lisa brings a variety of accounting, administrative and organizational skills to IRIS and is in the process of earning her B.A. degree in Accounting with a Minor in Human Resource Management. Welcome aboard, Rick and Lisa!   2008-07-09T19:16:00-05:00 http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/teachers_learn_geophysics_and_seismology_principles http://www.iris.edu/hq/news/story/teachers_learn_geophysics_and_seismology_principles#When:13:44:01Z Staff from IRIS, UNAVCO and the EarthScope National Office conducted a professional development workshop for teachers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in early June. Twenty four teachers from Nebraska and eastern Colorado attended. During the workshop, entitled "Explore Central Great Plains Geology and Geophysics through the EarthScope Program," the teachers improved their foundation in geophysics, learned how EarthScope is investigating the Great Plains using geophysics, and participated in activities and demonstrations that can be used in their classrooms.   The National Science Foundation-sponsored workshop featured a day and a half of activities and talks on using current geophysical data to teach earth science. After an introduction to EarthScope and a review of plate tectonics, teachers used a simple model of the earth to construct a travel time curve. They then used the model to explore earth's structure and the concept of seismic tomography. Later, the teachers had fun playing with the five-slinky model, acting as human seismic waves, and building their own seismographs. Computer-based activities were a prominent  focus of the workshop, too. The instructors guided teachers as they used the web-based EarthScope Voyager, Jr. tool to understand the relationship between earthquakes, volcanoes and plate tectonics; the Seismic Eruption software to "predict" the occurrence of earthquakes; and online GPS time series plots to investigate plate motion. The teachers also learned a new way to use seismograms to locate an earthquake's epicenter. Instead of using interpreted seismograms from a textbook, they scrutinized actual three-component seismograms to determine P- and S-wave arrival times and then used their readings to find the earthquake's epicenter on an inflatable globe. The workshop ended with an exploration of Episodic Tremor and Slip in the Pacific Northwest. The School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska -Lincoln hosted the teachers, and geologist Dr. Matt Joeckel discussed Nebraska geology and how geophysicists will use USArray data to understand the earthquake risk along the Mid-Continent Rift under eastern Nebraska. On the first night of the workshop, the University of Nebraska State Museum hosted the teachers and instructors for a dinner surrounded by skeletons of ancient elephants.    2008-06-27T13:44:01-05:00