The Making of Texas

This atlas presents plate reconstructions from the early Neoproterozoic (1000-750 Ma) to the present-day as derived by Ian Dalziel for the PLATES Project, Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at Austin.PLATES Project, Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at AustinInstitute for Geophysic

Celebrating the Physics in Geophysics

As 2005, the International Year of Physics, comes to an end, two physicists working primarily in geophysical research reflect on how geophysics is not an applied physics. Although geophysics has certainly benefited from progress in physics and sometimes emulated the reductionist program of mainstream physics, it has also educated the physics community about some of the generic behaviors of strongly nonlinear systems. Dramatic examples are the insights we have gained into the ``emergent'' phenomena of chaos, cascading instabilities, turbulence, self-organization, fractal structure, power-law variability, anomalous scaling, threshold dynamics, creep, fracture, and so on. In all of these examples, relatively simple models have been able to explain the recurring features of apparently very complex signals and fields. It appears that the future of the intricate relation between physics and geophysics will be as exciting as its past has been characterized by a mutual fascination. Physics departments in our universities should capitalize on this trend to attract and retain young talent motivated to address problems that really matter for the future of the planet. A pressing topic with huge impact on populations and that is challenging enough for both physics and geophysics communities to work together like never before is the understanding and prediction of extreme events.Comment: 6 pages, final version to appear in EOS-AGU Transactions in November 200

Multitransient electromagnetic demonstration survey in France

We describe the acquisition, processing, and inversion of a multitransient electromagnetic (MTEM) single-line survey, conducted in December 2004 over an underground gas storage reservoir in southwestern France. The objective was to find a resistor corresponding to known gas about 500m below the survey line. In data acquisition, we deployed a 100-m inline bipole current source and twenty 100-m inline potential receivers in various configurations along the 5-km survey line; we measured the input current step and received voltages simultaneously. Then we deconvolved the received voltages for the measured input current to determine the earth impulse responses. We show how both amplitude and traveltime information contained in the recovered earth impulse responses reveal the lateral location and approximate depth of the resistive reservoir. Integrating the impulse responses yields step responses, from which the asymptotic DC values were estimated and used in rapid 2D dipole-dipole DC resistivity inversion to find the top of the reservoir. A series of collated 1D full-waveform inversions performed on individual common midpoint gathers of the step responses position the top and bottom of a resistor corresponding to known gas in the reservoir and also obtain the transverse resistance. The results imply that the MTEM method can be used as a tool for hydrocarbon exploration and production

SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research) Annual Report 1995/1996

The Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR) was a facility of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs whose mission is to make airborne geophysical observations available to the broad research community of geology, glaciology and other sciences. The central office of the SOAR facility is located in Austin, Texas within the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. Other institutions with significant responsibilities are the Lamont­ Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Geophysics Branch of the U.S . Geological Survey. This report summarizes the goals and accomplishments of the SOAR facility during 1995/1996 and plans for the next year.National Science Foundation's Office of Polar ProgramsInstitute for Geophysic

Small-World Networks in Geophysics

Many geophysical processes can be modelled by using interconnected networks. The small-world network model has recently attracted much attention in physics and applied sciences. In this paper, we try to use and modify the small-world theory to model geophysical processes such as diffusion and transport in disordered porous rocks. We develop an analytical approach as well as numerical simulations to try to characterize the pollutant transport and percolation properties of small-world networks. The analytical expression of system saturation time and fractal dimension of small-world networks are given and thus compared with numerical simulations

OBSTOOL: Software for Processing UTIG OBS Data

This report describes OBSTOOL, a graphical user interface that allows the user to process data collected by the Univesity of Texas at Austin Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) ocean bottom seismographs (OBSs).Institute for Geophysic

Remote sensing geophysics from Skylab

There are no author-identified significant results in this report