This Division of Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities Program grant supports acquisition and monumentation of Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment to upgrade and augment an existing GPS network on Hawaii's Big Island. Specifically, six 16-year old GPS sites on Kilauea will be replaced with new receivers and antennas and five temporary sites on Hawaii's west coast will be upgraded to make them part of the continuously operating, telemetered network. The GPS observations enabled and secured will support research on the subsurface magmatic activity associated with active vulcanism within Kilauea and Mauna Loa and related tectonics (e.g., slow slip on the south flank of Kilauea) as well as studies of regional meteorological dynamics through GPS facilitated measurements of precipitable water vapor in the troposphere. A better understanding of slow slip events and their relationship to the earthquake cycle is of fundamental importance in understanding the conditions leading to major, possibly tsunamigenic, earthquakes. Kilauea?s south flank extends underwater as a major submarine landslide that would cause an eastern Pacific-wide tsunami should it collapse catastrophically. Clearer understanding of this feature and its mechanical and dynamical behavior, and its connection to magmatic processes, will significantly assist hazard assessments. The improved local reference frame facilitated by this upgrade would benefit the civil, research and industrial communities.
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