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Rensselaer Earth Research Featured at AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco
Sixteen Rensselaer researchers presented results, ranging
from imaging earthquake activity at the San Andreas Fault to
exploring life in extreme environments, at the 2005 American
Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting Dec. 5-9 in San
Francisco.
Steven Roecker, geophysics professor at Rensselaer, and
undergraduate student Ashley Shuler are collaborating with
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers to analyze five
years of seismic activity data from the San Andreas Fault
Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). A component of EarthScope, SAFOD
is a national project that involves drilling two miles into the
Earth’s surface to reveal what processes underneath the fault
enable plates to slip and slide past one another. As part of
his work on SAFOD, Roecker has set up an advanced network of
instrumentation at the site to record seismic data on a
continuous basis. The researchers presented data on the inverse
problem techniques they are using to image what’s below the
surface, refining knowledge of 3-D crustal structure, wave
propagation characteristics, and earthquake locations around
the site, with the goal of understanding what causes
earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault.
Shuler also presented a slip model of the 2004 9.0
Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake using GPS data from 65 networked
sites throughout the region. Created in collaboration with
researchers at University of Alaska-Fairbanks and India’s
Centre for Earth Studies, the research model shows the slip and
movement of the faults along the tectonic plate boundaries and
each fault segment’s contribution to displacement at the site,
as well as the earthquake-caused changes in longitude and
latitude.
Anurag Sharma, biogeochemistry professor at Rensselaer,
discussed recent results that demonstrate it is possible to
create methane in the absence of life processes using
inorganic chemicals available at deep subsurface
conditions. He also highlighted caveats overlooked
by several earlier attempts to create such abiotic
synthesis. In an educational poster presentation at the
meeting, Sharma presented results on how some microbes adapt to
such extreme conditions while others perish. Sharma is
exploring how microbes in extreme environments survive and grow
and whether organic resources can be generated at such extreme
conditions. His cross-disciplinary research uses physics tools
such as diamond anvil cells and high-pressure vessels to
investigate biological and bio-geochemical processes. Sharma
and graduate student Rui Zou have been experimenting with the
role of interactions between minerals and geochemical fluids by
simulating conditions found deep in the Earth’s crust.
Read the
press release.
Published
December 12,
2005
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