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
One of the main methods scientists have of peering into the Earth is reflection seismology. This technique uses sound waves, produced by an artificial source at the Earth’s surface, to generate an image, much like a CT-scan produces an image of the interior of the human body. The images produced by reflection seismology provide critical information about geohazards, resource distribution, and Earth history. The need to image inside the Earth does not stop at the shoreline — numerous key geological processes occur in the solid Earth beneath the oceans: Many of the world’s most threatening geological hazards occur beneath the oceans. Ocean sediments contain the most continuous record of Earth’s geological and climate history available. 80% of the world’s population lives at or near the coast, and they influence, and are affected by, marine geological processes. Most of the world’s petroleum resources are hosted in marine sediments. In order to peer beneath the blue ocean, which covers 70% of the planet’s surface, research vessels equipped with specialized seismic gear are required. The U.S. currently has the best such seismic vessel serving the world’s research community — the R/V Langseth. Without it, Earth scientists would be "blind" to many of the processes that govern Earth’s climate, tectonics, environment, and hazards. In March 2010, over 70 marine seismologists met in Incline Village, Nevada, to seek consensus on a path toward greater community participation in R/V Langseth cruises and broader use of data products, and to find new mechanisms for stabilizing funding within our community. This grant provided the funding for those scientists to meet, as well as two post-meeting products: a workshop report and a brochure explaining Langseth-based science. Both reports are available online at www.steveholbrook.com/mlsoc . The reports highlighted the impacts of Langseth science, including great earthquakes and tsunami, submarine landslides, ocean mixing, sea level change, methane hydrates, tectonic-climate feedbacks, the creation of ocean crust, volcanism at continental margins, and continental breakup. In addition, we charted new strategies for making Langseth data more accessible to the public and more useful in classrooms.
