The past few days here have been very interesting for me personally, as I’ve started discussions with Sean and Bobby about what research I’ll be doing at UT over the next several years. I know most of you don’t care, but for those of you who do (my mom, myself) here’s an overview of what we’ve found so far and the research we’ve been talking about.
The data we are collecting on this cruise will be unique because they are high-resolution, high-quality geophysical data in a relatively unexplored area of the Gulf of Alaska. In addition to the multi-channel seismic reflection data and the multibeam bathymetry I’ve already mentioned, we are also collecting wide-angle refraction data with ocean bottom seismometers (OBS), chirp data (shallow, high-resolution seismic data), and sonobuoy data (another type of seismic data). Bobby and I will be some of the first people to have access to and use these data, which is very exciting from a research perspective. We’ll be looking at places in the world that no one has seen with this kind of detail ever before.
One of the areas that we’ve been crossing over quite a bit is a large region covered by a feature known as the Baranof Fan – a large marine sedimentary deposit straddling the border of the U.S. and Canada. The USGS is interested in this area because the sediment here is thick enough to extent the U.S. economic zone. We at UT-Austin are interested in this area scientifically because no one really knows how exactly all that sediment got there and what tectonic and/or climatic processes caused its deposition. It could a combination of any number of things, from submarine slumps caused by earthquakes to erosive glaciers. Bobby has already completed a chapter of his PhD dissertation on the formation of the Surveyor Fan, another large sedimentary system to the north of the Baranof Fan.
Thankfully, I’ve had the opportunity (while on watch or downtime during processing) to read several papers on the Gulf of Alaska that Bobby gave to me. The last comprehensive paper written on the Baranof Fan, as far as Sean knows and as far as I can tell, was written in 1987. (That’s almost 25 years ago. Hello?) Back then, the researchers had a lot of unanswered questions about the area. Since no one has answered them since then – and since we have all this great new data covering the fan – Sean and I have decided that it’s my job to do it!
We discussed some of the questions that need answering, and there are a TON. It’s a little bit overwhelming! To start off, we’re going to focus on the “big picture” angle of the tectonics and depositional processes that formed the fan. We’ll begin analysis by doing some surface mapping, sub-surface channel mapping, and tectonic reconstructions. That’ll probably take me two years (seriously). There are other possibilities for the other chapters of my dissertation, as well. I could use some of the refraction data from the OBS lines to look at basement structure (which would be great, especially coupled with the excellent reflection data we have). Sean also has a proposal in for collecting data off of Yakutat, AK, where there’s a lot of interesting things going on tectonically and morphologically. If that goes through, it’ll almost certainly be a part of my project, and we’ll collect data next summer.
We’ve talked about presenting some of these data at the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference this December in San Francisco. It’s rare for a first-year grad student to present at the conference (I presented as an undergrad... *ahem*), since it’s so difficult to complete enough research in the first semester. But with my head start on field work and my strong work ethic, both Sean and I feel I can pull things together in time to present at AGU. We’re going to try to get some initial analysis and a rough abstract completed on board here, since I’ll be in Colorado during July and abstracts are due by August 4th (!). Very exciting that I’m already well on my way toward my degree!
It’s funny, because I’m currently enrolled as a Master’s student at UT. That’s going to last all of about five minutes when I get there. PhD, here I come!
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