Welcome

The Cascadia Initiative (CI) is an onshore/offshore seismic and geodetic experiment that takes CascadiaArray.002advantage of an Amphibious Array to study questions ranging from megathrust earthquakes to volcanic arc structure to the formation, deformation and hydration of the Juan De Fuca and Gorda plates.  The project is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Image Credit:   NEPTUNE-US Program at the University of Washington and the Center for Environmental Visualization (CEV)
 
 

Contents

Cascadia Initiative Data

Cascadia Initiative OBS Data Available at IRIS DMC

OBS data from the first two years of the Cascadia Initiative is available at the IRIS DMC. Visit the Data Highlights page to find out more about data and metadata

 

CIET_Oceanography_Coverb

Toomey, D.R., R.M. Allen, A.H. Barclay, S.W. Bell, P.D. Bromirski, R.L. Carlson, X. Chen, J.A. Collins, R.P. Dziak, B. Evers, D.W. Forsyth, P. Gerstoft, E.E.E. Hooft, D. Livelybrooks, J.A. Lodewyk, D.S. Luther, J.J. McGuire, S.Y. Schwartz, M. Tolstoy, A.M. Tréhu, M. Weirathmueller, and W.S.D. Wilcock. 2014. The Cascadia Initiative: A sea change in seismological studies of subduction zones. Oceanography 27(2):138–150

 

Expedtion Updates

Find the CIET Blog here.

2014 Field Season

During the 2014 field season there were 5 Cascadia Initiative cruises and two PI-led expeditions that recovered 69 OBSs and deployed a total of 93.  All data from Year 4 of the CI will be publically available when it is recovered in 2015.

2013 Field Season

During the 2013 field season there were 6 Cascadia Initiative cruises.  Operational objectives were to recover 70 OBSs deployed in 2012 and deploy 70 OBSs for 2013.  Relevant documents can be found on the 2013 CIET Expedition pages

2012 Field Season

During the 2012 field season there were 6 Cascadia Initiative cruises.  Operational objectives were to recover 62 OBSs deployed in 2011 and deploy 70 OBSs for 2012.  Cruise objectives and relevant maps/files can be found on the 2012 CIET Expedition pages.

2011 Field Season

During the 2011 field season the CIET completed 3 oceanographic expeditions to deploy 64 ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs).  All 64 OBSs were recovered between May-July 2012. Visit the 2011 Expeditions page for links to individual legs and related information.


Education and Outreach

Apply to Sail on a Cascadia Initiative Expedition (Summer 2014)

Students and early-career scientists are invited to sail on one of the 6 Cascadia Initiative Expeditions during the summer 2014 field season.

On the Pacific

Read dispatches written by Matt Cooper from the Atlantis as it retrieves earthquake monitors off the Northwest coast.

EARTH magazine highlights CC@SEA Program

Read all about the CC@SEA Program in EARTH Magazine

Cascadia Initiative:  The Movie

CIET Presentations


CIET and Fisheries Cooperate on successful field season:

The deployment of OBSs in shallow water requires close cooperation with fisheries in the PNW.  During the 2011 field season CIET sited dozens of OBSs in shallow water and consulted with local fisheries and stakeholders so as to minimize our impact on their operations (and vice versa!).  Scott McMullen from the Oregon Fishermen’s Cable Committee (OFCC) writes:

This is a real success story of the benefit of collaboration.  Just so you understand, had the seismometers been deployed in their originally proposed positions, I am sure that the outcome would not have been so positive–for your instruments and for the fishing industry.   Locating the seismometers near known “hang-ups” eliminated the impact on the trawl fleet and likely spared the devices some damage.   I applaud you for modifying the design to recover the instrument anchors rather than abandoning them, another very positive development.

Fisheries Flyer

A Flyer for the fisheries describing deployment of a subset of shallow water OBSs during 2012