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ANNUAL REPORT AUGUST 2004-JULY 2006 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES S E I S M I C R E S E A R C H U N I T www.uwiseismic.com BIENNIAL REPORT 2004-2006 CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 OPERATIONS 4 The Seismograph network 4 Ground deformation networks 9 Geothermal monitoring 10 Seismic Activity 2004-2006 10 Volcanic Activity 2004-2006 13 RESEARCH 15 Major Projects Completed 15 Ongoing Projects 18 DEPARTMENTAL OUTREACH 24 Outreach 24 Media Relations 24 Website 24 Workshops 25 Special Projects 25 STAFF 27 Changes 27 Activities 28 Conferences and meetings 34 PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS 36 PUBLICATIONS 37 Refereed Journals 37 Technical Reports 37 Abstracts and Posters 38 PROJECTED ACTIVITIES 40 » THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIT ARE TO PROVIDE THE CONTRIBUTING GOVERNMENTS WITH ACCURATE AND UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ABOUT EARTHQUAKE AND VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN REGION. » THE UNIT MAINTAINS A SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK WHICH, WHEN COMBINED WITH THE NETWORKS OPERATED BY COOPERATING AGENCIES, COVERS THE ENTIRE EASTERN CARIBBEAN. » WE ARE ABLE TO PROVIDE CONTINUOUS INFORMATION ABOUT EARTHQUAKES AS THEY HAPPEN, TO CARRY OUT SPECIALIST STUDIES OF PARTICULARLY SIGNIFICANT EARTHQUAKES IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY HAPPEN, AND REGULARLY TO UPDATE ESTIMATES OF THE LEVEL OF EARTHQUAKE HAZARD IN THE REGION. » THE UNIT CONDUCTS A CONTINUOUS STUDY OF ACTIVE VOLCANISM IN THE LESSER ANTILLES BY BOTH GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL METHODS THAT ARE DESIGNED TO: IDENTIFY WHICH OF THE VOLCANIC CENTRES IN THE LESSER ANTILLES PRESENT A THREAT OF FUTURE ERUPTIONS AND TO ADVISE REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS ACCORDINGLY; QUANTIFY THE HAZARD IN THE FORM OF HAZARD MAPS; PROVIDE TIMELY AND AUTHORITATIVE WARNING OF IMPENDING VOLCANIC ACTIVITY; PROVIDE TIMELY AND AUTHORITATIVE REASSURANCE THAT SOMETIMES ALARMING PHENOMENA ARE NOT SIGNS OF AN IMMEDIATE ERUPTION AND ASSIST GOVERNMENTS IN PREPARING VOLCANIC CONTINGENCY PLANS. Cover page photo credits: All photographs taken by SRU staff except tsunami image from Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand, taken by David Rydevik [email protected]. SEISMIC RESEARCH UNIT, U.W.I. 1 BIENNIAL REPORT 2004-2006 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY he 2004-2006 academic year was marked Finalisation of this Plan is underway and will be by the publication of a comprehensive distributed to our stakeholders during 2007. reference text, the departure of long In May, 2005 the Unit launched a Volcanic Hazard Tstanding staff members and a major review of the Atlas of the Lesser Antilles (VHA), the first of way forward for the Seismic Research Unit. its kind in the world. Funded by USAID/OFDA After a total of twenty-nine years of service through the Caribbean Development Bank, this Professor John Shepherd retired from the comprehensive reference text on volcanism in the University as Head of the Seismic Research Unit Lesser Antilles provides an up-to-date summary of in November 2004 and Dr. Richard Robertson was the current understanding of the evolution of West simultaneously appointed Acting Head of the Unit Indies volcanoes. A multimedia version of the and substantive Head in July 2005. The year 2004 VHA is scheduled to be completed and launched also saw the retirement of the Unit’s longest serving in 2007. th member of staff, Mr. Godfrey Almorales, who July 2005 marked the 10 anniversary of the eruption served as a research technician in the seismology of the Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat, and department for forty-one years. the Unit spearheaded an international conference During the years in review, the Unit began a in Montserrat entitled ‘Soufrière Hills Volcano - process of internal consultations aimed at drafting Ten Years On Scientific Conference’. Organized a Strategic Plan to guide the operations of the Unit in collaboration with the Montserrat Volcano for the next 3-5 years. This is the first time this Observatory, the organising committee received exercise has been undertaken in the Unit’s history. ninety scientific abstracts and registered over 100 participants from across the globe. Research highlights during the year included the completion and publication of volcanic hazard assessments of all volcanic islands for which the Unit is responsible, the initiation of a joint study with the University of East Anglia to systematically analyse the effectiveness of differing modes of risk and hazard communication, and an investigation of the data obtained from an existing 4-station strong motion seismic network on the island of Trinidad. Staff members attended and made presentations at a total of eleven conferences and were involved Earthquake damage in Portsmouth, Dominica, in the publication of at least thirty scientific works November 2004 (including refereed journals, refereed books, refereed book chapters, abstracts and posters). eologically the past two Geologically the past two year have been busy years have been busy for for the Unit as the seismograph network recorded G over 2126 earthquakes in the area of responsibility. the Unit as the seismograph There were twenty-five significant felt events network recorded a minimum of for the period, the strongest of which being the magnitude 6.2 Les Saintes event of November 21, 1086 earthquakes...the strongest 2004. This event caused damage in Dominica, one of which being the magnitude 6.2 death in Guadeloupe and was felt from St. Maarten in the north to St. Vincent in the south. Les Saintes event of November Volcanic activity in the Eastern Caribbean for the 21, 2004. reporting period was relatively quiet with perhaps SEISMIC RESEARCH UNIT, U.W.I. 2 BIENNIAL REPORT 2004-2006 the most signifi cant event being the drastic decrease of water levels at Dominica’s Boiling Lake. The lake eventually dried out in December 2004 and subsequently, the water level increased but varied dramatically for a few months before fi nally returning to its usual level in April 2005. The process of consolidating the sub-networks by optimizing the number and quality of instruments Nevis geophysical fi eldwork, was continued, notably in St. Vincent and August 2004 Dominica. The upgraded network can produce high quality data in adequate volume if a strict maintenance schedule is followed. The cost of operation and maintenance is not prohibitive but real-time accessibility of data is sacrifi ced. Hurricane Ivan and its associated weather systems infl icted damage on three of the seismograph sub- IAVCEI General Assembly, networks and caused lengthy disruption of service Pucon, Chile 2004 in St. Kitts and Grenada. The impact of the hurricane was felt most severely in Grenada where the loss of both telecommunication and power resulted in the interruption of full monitoring of the Kick ‘em Jenny volcano for almost 4 months. A single conventional short period seismic station located 16 km south of the volcano survived the onslaught of the hurricane and remained online for Montserrat Conference 2005 most of the period after the storm. In Dominica, theft of equipment at the Hillcrest program was fully established and the Unit has Estate station caused severe setback to volcanic begun to build a geochemical database that will surveillance in the north of the island and later provide valuable information for establishing to the coverage of the Les Saintes earthquake of baseline activity at volcanic systems in the region, November 26, 2004. Due largely to high levels as well as for other areas of concern e.g. health of activity in northern Dominica two milestone impacts associated with volcanic activity. arrangements were secured. The Unit was able to Planned activities of note for the 2006-2007 negotiate a suitable ADSL Internet access contract academic year include a major upgrade of the for both sub-network hubs on the island and, the Eastern Caribbean Seismograph Network, the Ross University School of Medicine agreed to host hosting of a Caribbean Training Course in an accelerograph on the school campus. Seismology and Tsunami Warnings, establishment Occasionally, there were other disruptions of of a graduate programme and taught courses in service at other sub-network hubs but most were Volcanology and Seismology at the University rectifi ed using remote troubleshooting and repairing of the West Indies, St. Augustine, publication of techniques or with the help of local technicians. the Unit’s Strategic Plan, improvement in security Electronics staff have developed considerable skill at the Unit and the upgrade of the Department’s in carrying out remote maintenance which has website. Ongoing efforts will also continue on the resulted in savings from not having to travel too drafting and submission of project proposals to often to carry out network maintenance. funding agencies and research councils throughout The revived geothermal monitoring the Eastern Caribbean and elsewhere. SEISMIC RESEARCH UNIT, U.W.I. 3 BIENNIAL REPORT 2004-2006 OPERATIONS THE SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK sensors in numbers that were adequate for detailed analysis of threatening events. Rapid deployment n September 1998 the first of an array of PC- of additional stations was always needed to Based seismic data acquisition/monitoring enable proper investigations of volcanic unrest or systems was deployed at Morne Daniel to earthquake aftershocks and, on many occasions, by Imonitor a volcanic crisis in progress in Dominica. the time the network was made sufficiently dense This heralded the initiation of a significant network crucial information was missed. The combined upgrade that was earnestly needed to modernize effect of restricted instrument response and the the monitoring of geologic hazards in the region. distortion introduced by the analogue transmission Immediately prior to 1998 the seismic network circuits further limited the quality of the data comprised an array of 32 narrow-band vertical acquired from the remotely located sensors. As a sensors that were linked to the Unit headquarters consequence the unit was often forced to employ in St. Augustine, Trinidad via a combination of the costly measure of deploying staff on location leased telephone circuits and/or several radio to man the acquisition systems for the duration of links.