Hi, I’m Jenny, one of Dr. Anne Sheehan’s graduate students in Geophysics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I am in New Zealand for a scientific experiment called HOBITSS, the Hikurangi Ocean Bottom Investigation of Tremor and Slow Slip.
This project will utilize data collected by absolute pressure gauges and ocean bottom seismometers, which we are deploying on the research cruise that this blog is about. These instruments are sensitive to ground motion from both local and global earthquakes as well as tectonic tremor, and they are being deployed now to measure a slow-slip event on the Pacific-Indian Australian subduction zone that will potentially be happening in 2014-2015. Understanding more about the extent of the slow slip and any associated ground motion will help to define the seismic hazard for New Zealand. I will be posting each day about the exciting things happening on the cruise.