Expressions of Intent for International Polar Year 2007-2008 Activities

Expression of Interest Details

PROPOSAL INFORMATION

Developing Plans for Seismic Deployments in Eurasian Arctic Region - By Passive and Active Source Studies to Global Seismology -  (Developing Plans for Seismic Deployments in Eurasian Arctic Region)

Outline
Existing permanent seismic stations allows resolution of the structure beneath Arctic area is sufficient to detect fundamental differences in the lithosphere beneath continental and oceanic area, however, not to clearly define the structure within each terrains. In addition, seismicity around the Arctic area is limited by the sparse station distribution and the detection level for earthquakes remains inadequate for full evaluation of tectonic activity. Our proposed program of the Seismic Deployments in Russian Arctic Region aims to improve seismic instrumentation on and around the high latitude area. Our Seismic Deployments have the following three components. Temporary Broadband observations at Baikal Rift Zone; Continuous digital recording by portable broadband seismometer have been carried out from 2004 January, in order to investigate the deep structure and tectonic evolution of Shiberian Craton - Baikal Rift Zone (BRZ) by seismic waveform analyses. The observation period will continue about two years, then at IPY period we are going to make an advanced analysis combined with the global dataset surrounding the BRZ and Siberia. Outreach of the Permanent Broadband Station; Existing stations of the Federation of Digital Seismographic Network (FDSN) should be supplemented by instrument specification with Global Seismological Network (GSN) in high latitude of the Arctic area. Technological advances in power supplies and real-time data transmission for remote stations, as well as significant logistical support, are fully required. Our plan is to make an outreach to establish a permanent station in the Russian Arctic area in order to offer the obtained data to FDSN in future. Deep seismic exploration at Magadan – Kolymsoe region; To reveal the deep structure and conversion tectonics of Far East Region, Russia, deep seismic exploration have been conducted from 2004 summer for a period of few years including IPY season. Temporary data acquisition of the deep exploration seismic shots / vibrator will be made by both Japanese and Russian related seismologists.

What significant advance(s) in relation to the IPY themes and targets can be anticipated from this project?
The justification for our program to develop Arctic Seismic Deployments address both the unique aspects of seismology on Arctic and general issues that would be common to global Earth sciences; for example: - lithospheric dynamics in an ice-covered environment;- how lithospheric processes drive and may be driven by global environmental change (sea level, climate);- the scale and nature of rifting as a process that has shaped the continent and dominated its evolution;- the role of Antarctica as the keystone in the supercontinent formation and break-up throughout Earth's history;- how the tectonic and thermal structure of the Antarctic lithosphere affect current ice sheet dynamics;- age, growth, and evolution of the continent and processes that have shaped the lithosphere;- the effect of improved seismic coverage on global models of the lithosphere, mantle, and core.The International Polar Year (2007-2008) may be a good chance to initiate this Arctic Seismic Deployment in order to achieve these targets.

What international collaboration is involved in this project?
Permanent broadband seismic stations in Arctic region provide unique opportunity for the contribution to the global Earth science, not only for Russian local/regional studies. The obtained data will eventually sent to the global data centre of the Federation Digital Seismographic Networks. Active source deep seismic studies can be made with efficient efforts from Russian and the other related Europe scientists.

FIELD ACTIVITY DETAILS

Geographical location(s) for the proposed field activities:
Siberian Craton - Baikal Rift Zone; To reveal the deep structure and tectonic evolution by operating portable broadband seismometer. Russian Arctic Region; To the outreach of the permanent broadband station in northern high latitude for contribution to FDSN. Magadan – Kolymsoe region, Far East, Russia; To reveal the deep structure and tectonic evolution by deep seismic exploration

Approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities:
Arctic: 07/07 – 09/07      07/08 – 09/08      
Antarctic: 03/07 – 12/08            

Significant facilities will be required for this project:
To carry out the field work in Russian Siberian Craton – Baikal Rift Zone, together with Magadan – Kolymsoe region, a major support will be provided by ground transportation such as 4WD cars, buses and partially by trains. To install a few tens of geophones along the seismic profile for deep crustal surveys, less than ten people are need for a month’s length of field operation. Technological advances in power supplies and real-time data transmission for remote Arctic stations are required, if possible, as well as house keeping maintenance support.

Will the project leave a legacy of infrastructure?
The temporally broadband seismic stations including long term batteries and large capacity of digital data-loggers can be utilized for the other science purposes, such as geophysical, meteological, glaciological and biological studies, etc.. The seismic instruments for deep surveys will be sheared in future by chiefly Russian geoscientists. A proposed permanent broadband station continues its observation after the IPY more than a decade.

How is it envisaged that the required logistic support will be secured?

Has the project been "endorsed" at a national or international level?
The portable and permanent broadband stations are endorsed by the FDSN and the other related community of the Earth sciences. The DSS at the Far East region is supported by the IASPEI/ILP, IGCP program, together with the Russian Academy of Science. Our proposed plan is also endorsed by the Japanese national committee

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND STRUCTURE

Is the project a short-term expansion (over the IPY 2007-2008 timeframe) of an existing plan, programme or initiative or is it a new autonomous proposal?
yes

Broadband seismic observations at the Baikal Rift Zone is an existing study started from January 2004, collaborated with Russian Academy of Science and the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan. Deep seismic exploration at Magadan – Kolymsoe region is also existing study from 2004 summer, cooperated with the both Institutions and related universities. Outreach of the permanent broadband station in Arctic area is a new autonomous proposal at IPY.

How will the project be organised and managed?
More than twenty cooperative researchers both domestic and international institutions have their own special tasks to carry out this project. Several members install the field stations to get the actual data at the IPY period; the others make analyses of the specified topics by use of the obtained dataset combined with the other local / global data. After the accumulation of the results from domestic members, it is planned to have an international workshop to face with to each other the results from international cooperatives. We can meet enough numbers of opportunity to have a discussion concerning a justification of the progress of Arctic geo-science and field deployments, such as of RAS, EGS, SEISMIX and the other workshops, and also can have in future.

What are the initial plans of the project for addressing the education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
The scientific results will be presented in all kinds of domestic / international workshops, symposium and conferences. Then will be published in the related international geo-science journals. For educations, some members can make lectures and / or talks for any kinds of school children about the topics of science results together with an introduction about IPY and the Arctic investigation. We sincere have an obligation to teach with young generations for the advance of natural sciences.

What are the initial plans of the project to address data management issues (as outlined in the Framework document?
The obtained dataset at the IPY 2007-2008 can be initially stored and published for all the related cooperatives and the other geo-scientists by Internet service from the data library server of the National Institute of Polar Research (POLARIS system). Then immediately offered to the world data centres of seismology, such as IRIS/DMS, FDSN/GSN, PACIFIC21 centres. These web-pages can be opened in general and combined to the JCADM, SCAR/ANTEC, etc.

How is it proposed to fund the project?
A major resource for the developments of field observations, perches of the instruments for the Seismic Deployments in Russian Arctic Region comes from both Japanese and Russian financial support agencies, including governmental organization such as Japan Society for Promotion of Science, JSPS.

Is there additional information you wish to provide?
None

PROPOSER DETAILS

Dr. Masaki Kanao
National Institute of Polar research,


1-9-10 kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo
173-8515
Japan

Tel: 81-3-3962-3275
Mobile: 81-90-5405-6004
Fax: 81-3-3962-5741
Email:

Other project members and their affiliation