Superior Rifting EarthScope Experiment Wraps Up Data Collection & Presents At MHS

Written by admin on 28 October 2013

Northwestern University PhD Candidate Trevor Bollman works at dismantling the SPREE equipment he had installed 2 yrs previous in Manitouwadge, ON. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

Northwestern University PhD Candidate Trevor Bollmann at the SPREE station in Manitouwadge, ON. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

MANITOUWADGE, ON– October 17th, Trevor Bollmann and a colleague, spent a chilly morning in Manitouwadge removing the equipment, installed near the municipal airport, which had been collecting data for the Superior Rifting EarthScope Experiment for more than 2years.

Geoscientists from American and Canadian universities had installed a series of 16 seismometers in Ontario, North of Lake Superior; and 67 in Minnesota and Wisconsin, to record earthquakes that occur locally,regionally, and throughout the world. Seismic waves from earthquakes assisting scientists to produce high-resolution images of the Earth’s interior that help to better understand geological history in the areas and more about current continental rifting and movement.

Each station was placed in an area far from sources of noise and vibration such as roads, railroads, and occupied buildings. The seismometer itself is buried underground, and all of the electronics are powered by solar panels. Twice a year, graduate students visited the stations to collect the data recorded by the seismometers and check to make sure the station is functioning properly. Unfortunately, though the station in Manitouwadge had been, for the most part, ignored by the public over the past 2 years, Bollmann had arrived to find it had been tampered with at some point during the previous six months and would not know, until the equipment was inspected back at the University, when exactly this had occurred (no information would’ve been collected after the equipment sensors had locked the seismometer due to the handling). However in spite of a significant amount of water having flooded the housing for the seismometer, which had been left uncovered after the vandalism, everything seemed to be intact – a small relief among the disappointment of learning that up to 6 months of data might be unusable due to someone’s curiosity.

The equipment in Manitouwadge, was among the last 3 stations being removed in Canada, Bollmann and his colleague travelling, in the days that followed, to dismantle and collect equipment from the other stations including one in Chapleau.

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Map of the Complete Bouguer Anomaly of the Study Area Overlain by the Seismic Stations in the Area (Present and Future). Supplied map.

Having collected the equipment and returned the Manitouwadge site to it’s previous natural condition, Bollmann planned an afternoon visit to Manitouwadge High School. Teacher Gord Martin had invited students from; Gr. 9 Science, Gr. 11 Physics, Gr. 11 Biology and Gr. 11 Chemistry to Bollmann’s presentation. Bollmann presented to them information about earthquakes, faults and plate tectonics as well as details of his work with SPREE, explaining the information being collected by SPREE and how it would be used to study the North American Mid-continent Rift. The students were encouraged to ask questions; Bollmann welcoming their curiosity. Much of what was presented is relevant to the students curriculum explained Mr. Martin “The Grade 9’s will be studying some of this in Geography after Christmas while the Grade 11’s will be learning Physical Geography in the New Year which will cover a lot of the details Trevor talked about. Even the diagrams used are some of the same I use in class.” explained Mr. Martin. The opportunity to see how their learning applies in real-world situations and learn more about field some may have considered for themselves as a post-secondary option was, no doubt, invaluable.

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Bollmann explained that the data being collected by SPREE will be used to study a somewhat linear geologic feature called the Midcontinent Rift. About a billion years ago, this part of the continent started to break apart, or “rift”. Over about 20 million years, an enormous amount of volcanic rock was erupted or intruded into the crust.In total, the Midcontinent Rift contains at least about a half million cubic kilometers of igneous volcanic rock—enough to fill up all of the Great Lakes twenty times, and enough for an ocean floor twice the area of Lake Superior.

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All of Earth’s oceans started as such rifts. For example, the Americas rifted apart from Europe and Africa to form the Atlantic Ocean. But despite its impressive size, the Midcontinent Rift failed to break North America apart.

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The subsurface structure of the Midcontinent Rift is still relatively unknown. Participating student scientists are using the data recorded by the seismometers to create images of the rift’s structure deep below the surface—like taking a CAT scan or an ultrasound of the Earth. Studying the structure of the rift will provide clues about why it started, how it progressed and regressed, and why it failed.

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The SPREE project is funded by the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov) through EarthScope (www.earthscope.org) and is enabled by the dozens of landowners and park rangers that allow and assist us with installing and running these stations on their land.

SPREE represents a collaboration between Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Minnesota, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Quebec in Montreal, PQ.

: Northwestern University PhD Candidate Trevor Bollmann works at dismantling the SPREE equipment he had installed 2 yrs previous in Manitouwadge, ON. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

: Northwestern University PhD Candidate Trevor Bollmann at the SPREE station in Manitouwadge, ON. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

: An action-packer protects the batteries and electronic components, which collect data from the seismometer, of the SPREE station from the elements. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

: An action-packer protects the batteries and electronic components, which collect data from the seismometer, of the SPREE station from the elements. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013

: Inside the bag pictured here, is the seismometer. Though equipment was carefully buried and sealed to be protected from the elements, a curious vandal had tampered with it, leaving the lid opened which allowed rain to collect inside. Photos OntarioNewsNorth.com 2013