OUTREACH ACTIVITIES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS AND THE PUBLIC IN EARTHSCOPE'S TRANSPORTABLE ARRAY

One of the goals of EarthScope is to actively engage students who will become the next generation of Earth scientists. The Transportable Array contributes to this goal by offering university students an opportunity to perform site reconnaissance for future seismic stations. In addition, other outreach activities are conducted to increase awareness and understanding of seismology concepts and scientific discoveries enabled by the EarthScope facilities, including several in collaboration with the EarthScope National Office and the Plate Boundary Observatory.

The Student Siting Program is a 10-week effort that begins with a multi-day workshop to introduce selected students and their faculty sponsors to seismic station requirements and a variety of mapping tools. The workshop includes presentations on topics such as siting criteria and communications options, and includes a day in the field to enable the students to evaluate actual sites and to gain experience using GPS units, modems, and other field equipment and techniques. Students work in pairs for the remaining 9 weeks under the supervision of a local advisor. Surveys at the end of the summer show that the students are enthusiastic about their active involvement in a major research project. From 2005 to 2009, about 90 students from 31 universities conducted site reconnaissance for more than 835 sites across the western half of the US. In 2010, participants in the Student Siting Program will identify sites in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Wisconsin, Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

Using data recorded by Transportable Array stations, hundreds of earthquake visualizations have been generated and posted on the web, illustrating the arrival of seismic waves across the array. The EarthScope onSite newsletter informs the geoscience community as well as station hosts and the general public about the status of EarthScope and exciting science discoveries. Universities, regional seismic networks, and entities that monitor ground motion are informed about opportunities to obtain one or more installed Transportable Array stations. Other outreach activities include teacher workshops, classroom seismographs and a DVD of earthquake-related educational materials, and EarthScope-specific pages for the Active Earth Display.