The workshop will examine the entire process of soliciting, evaluating, funding, and scheduling work on the R/V Langseth. It will also address how to improve access to the data acquired during sea-going expeditions. The products of the workshop will include 1) a report summarizing the discussions, the items of consensus and contention, and recommendations; 2) a glossy brochure describing the science opportunities for active source seismology in the upcoming years; 3) an implementation plan for a new mode of operation of the R/V Langseth. Broader Impacts This is a time of unprecedented opportunity for marine seismology, as the R/V Langseth completes its second year of successful operations. The capabilities of the R/V Langseth will enable key scientific advances. However, along with the new opportunities come new challenges, including the high cost of 3D seismic acquisition, the difficulty of forecasting areas of operation, and ensuring broad community access to the data. The workshop will address these issues and provide a roadmap for operating this unique facility in the future
The lack of access to a healthy, functioning marine seismic facility for U.S. researchers and their students provides an important and strategic obstacle in training the next generation of geoscientists that are required to explore for ever dwindling energy resources or evaluating seismic hazards— the latter was brought into sharp focus over the past decade with large earthquake/tsunami events in Indonesia, Chile and Japan. In March 2010, over 70 marine seismologists met in Incline Village, Nevada to reach consensus on a path toward greater community participation in R/V Marcus G. Langseth cruises and use of data products, and to find new mechanisms for stabilizing—and to perhaps increase—funding within our community, which has continued to dwindle in size over the past several decades. A key element of this workshop was the participation of a large number of young scientists—nearly 20 graduate students, post-docs and early career researchers—who helped provide constructive criticism of the status quo, and a unique perspective on the path forward. Breakout sessions discussing "Improving Access", "Science Opportunities", "The Proposal Process" and "Charting the Future" provided lively debates throughout the 3-day-long meeting, resulting in a remarkable degree of consensus on a myriad of important topics. Beyond the obvious desire to collect more 3D seismic data volumes in the near future, this large segment of the marine seismology community strongly endorsed the notion of both PI-driven and community-based experiments, with the latter representing a strong break from business as usual. This new type of experiment would include immediate data access to all interested parties, industry processing of 3-D reflection data, and wider use of the initial and final data products in classrooms. Scientists and educators alike left the Incline Village meeting with the sense that as a community the "corner had been turned", with the likelihood of greater access to multichannel seismic (MCS) data—and just maybe a path forward towards building a larger program that would be defined by significant growth of the user base over the next decade. Only through access to the latest seismic imaging tools, can the U.S. maintain its leadership in energy exploration, geohazard research and education of interested citizens through powerful new education/outreach approaches that leverage the amazing data that is provided through 3-D seismic imaging.
