I've spent the last week working on focal mechanisms. I went through all of my events and picked their first motions. Then using fm_tool, i plotted each event on a stereaonet and created a focal mechanism. After that, I went through all the first motions again, to check on the stations that did not fit with the suggested fm. Then I went through all of my notes and picked the events that had the clearest focal mechanisms, so that I was only using the best data. I only had a couple that were really good, but overall, there were about 150 that were semi decent.

Those are two examples of my focal mechansims. The first one is the best result I got, the other one is somewhat decent, but not altogether amazing. There is still that unfortunate lack of stations in the fourth quadrant that makes certain results difficutl to ascertain. I did take the best focal mechanisms and, using GMT, plotted them of the map to see what kind of resutl I woudl get.

The colors on the focal mechanisms represent depths, using the same scale as on my previous maps. I tried, but was unable to get the scale to appear on the map. It seems I was able to either see the scale, or the focal mechanisms. I chose the focla mechanisms. If I use this figure later, I can always edit it in on illustrater by copying it from one og the other files.

Anyways, looking at this map, we can see that there is a wide variety of focal mechanisms. In fact, there's just about everything, and the son't seem to appear to have any real distribution pattern, which suggests that these events are not tectonic.I already had made that assumption. I think they are more likely magamatic. That's what the analysis i'm working on now is focused on.

This summer so far has been very educational. I'm learning a lot about volcanic processes and seismicity associated with them. I like being around the AVO because it also gives me the chance to see the kinds of reactions eruptions incite within the scientific community involved. (There are currently two volcanoes erupting in the Aluetians, Okmok and Cleveland.) It really gives me more perspective of what there is to do post undergraduate work within the field of geophysics. I still have a month left up here in Alaska, and am looking forward to being able to look more in depth at my data set. As far as experiences, I have gotten more than I imagined I would out of my time so far. Since I am also hoping to use my summer research for my senior thesis project next year, I hope that my sumemr continues to be fruitful, and that my next few analyses tell me as much as the major ones I've worked on so far.

And that's what up with me.