Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Immediate report of Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition 1989-90: VUWAE 34

Future Research

Future Research

It is anticipated that sufficient digital earthquake recordings will be available by the end of 1990 to define enough earthquake families to establish an approximately correct velocity structure, and focal distribution within the volcano, and the present leader plans to remove the VUW equipment from Erebus by mid January 1991, for re-deployment on some other very active volcano. Also, his compulsory retirement on 31 Dec 1991, will impede further work in Antarctica.

However, I see volcanic seismology as near the end of the pioneering phase, in which researchers settled for minimum equipment to obtain the skeleton of the situation. Already earthquake seismologists are using arrays of 100 to 500 geophones to study earth structures far simpler than a volcano. The ease and reliability with which Erebus has been instrumented may attract more ambitious researchers. Until then, the activity of Erebus is important and unique enough to warrant a minimum monitoring programme, by one or two telemetry seismometer/microphone stations and a two channel San-ei long term ink-chart recorder.

I would recommend Truncated Cones for the telemetry site, because it has very good signal/noise characteristics, and is easy to reach by motor-toboggan from the lower hut on Erebus. Historically, victoria University has refused to support monitoring programs on volcanoes, and handed the equipment at both Ruapehu and White Island volcanoes over to DSIR when the work reached that stage. They may do the same at Erebus, but I consider that the TV surveillance equipment is too precarious for long term monitoring, and that a 16 channel digital seismograph would be wasted on only two channels, and should be removed. I would be happy to consult and cooperate with anyone about this. NIPR and/or NSF may be interested.