EarthScope Consortium is a 501(c)(3)

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

geophysical Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

science support organization. EarthScope Consortium operates two of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) major research facilities, the NSF

Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience The U.S. National Science Foundation's Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (NSF GAGE) is a Geophysics, geophysical facility for Earth science, geoscience research and education. It focuses on research of Earth's surface deformation ...

(GAGE) and the NSF

Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience The U.S. National Science Foundation's Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (NSF SAGE) is a distributed, multi-user national facility that provides support for state of-the-art seismic research. It is operated by EarthScope Conso ...

(SAGE), which provide geophysical instrumentation, data access, and services to support geoscience research and education. EarthScope Consortium's corporate headquarters are located in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and an instrument facility is located in

Socorro, New Mexico Socorro (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, sə-KOR-oh'') is a city in Socorro County, New Mexico, Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is in the Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA, Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . At the 2020 ...

Background

EarthScope Consortium was formed on January 1, 2023 through the merger of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) and

UNAVCO UNAVCO was a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitated geology research and education using geodesy. Background UNAVCO was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ...

. Both founded in 1984, IRIS and UNAVCO supported the U.S. scientific community's access to data, instrumentation, and educational resources within

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

and

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

, respectively. The "EarthScope Consortium" name is connected to IRIS and UNAVCO’s previous collaboration in the 2003–2018 NSF-funded EarthScope Program, which included operation of the

USArray USArray (Seismic and Magnetotelluric Observatory) was one of the three components of the Earthscope project, the other two components being the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) and the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). The component ...

and Plate Boundary Observatory components.

EarthScope Primary Instrument Center

The

EarthScope Primary Instrument Center The EarthScope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC, formerly the PASSCAL Instrument Center) is a research center at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for geophysics research in Earth system science. The facility provides instrumentation and ...

(EPIC) (formerly known as the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center) is located in Socorro, New Mexico at the

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech or NMT), formerly New Mexico School of Mines, is a public university in Socorro, New Mexico, United States. It offers over 30 Bachelor of Science degrees in technology, the scien ...

and houses central instrumentation maintenance and engineering activities. EPIC supports geophysical network operations in global and regional scientific networks, including: * The Network of the Americas (NOTA) *

Global Seismographic Network IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) was a university research consortium dedicated to exploring the Earth's interior through the collection and distribution of seismographic data. It operated the U.S. National Science Foundati ...

(GSN) * Global

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

Network (GGN) * Borehole

Strainmeter A strainmeter is an instrument used by geophysicists to measure the deformation of the Earth. Linear strainmeters measure the changes in the distance between two points, using either a solid piece of material (over a short distance) or a laser int ...

Network (BSM) * The Polar Network Operations funded by the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP)

NSF GAGE Facility

EarthScope Consortium is the operator of the NSF's Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE), previously operated by UNAVCO since the facility's creation in 2013. The NSF GAGE Facility funding is designated to support: *The Network of the Americas (NOTA), an international geophysics sensor network of more than 1,200 continuously operating instruments. These instruments include geodetic

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

stations and borehole strain, seismic, and

tilt Tilt may refer to: Music * Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992 * Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993 * Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979 Albums * ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981 ...

instruments. NOTA integrates stations from pre-existing GPS networks, including the Plate Boundary Observatory (which spans a range including

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, Continental U.S., and

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

), TLALOCNet (

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

), and COCONet (

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and the neighboring area). Data from this network are used for various fields of Earth science research, hazard monitoring (including the

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) is a volcano observatory that primarily monitors the Yellowstone Caldera in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The observatory's jurisdiction also includes volcanic centers in the states of ...

), and precision positioning applications like surveying or agriculture. *Stations in the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Global GNSS Network (GGN), which contributes to the International GNSS Service (IGS) responsible for the

International Terrestrial Reference Frame The International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS) describes procedures for creating reference frames suitable for use with measurements on or near the Earth's surface. This is done in much the same way that a physical standard might be descr ...

. *Instrumentation and data access for geodesy research driven by Principal Investigators. *Maintenance of some

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

(USGS) Volcano Hazards Program GPS/GNSS stations. *Data operations for the GPS/GNSS component of the

ShakeAlert ShakeAlert is an earthquake early warning system (EEW) in the United States, developed and operated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners. As of 2021, the system issues alerts for the country's West Coast (specifically ...

earthquake early warning system. *Education, workforce development, and outreach related to geodesy and geoscience.

NSF SAGE Facility

EarthScope Consortium is the operator of the NSF's Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE), previously operated by IRIS since the facility's creation in 2013. The NSF SAGE Facility funding is designated to support: *Operation of the Global Seismographic Network (GSN) (jointly with the USGS). The GSN is a globally distributed seismic network of over 150 stations. The NSF SAGE Facility provides for maintenance of approximately one third of the GSN stations. The USGS, via the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory, operates the remainder of GSN stations. Data from this network are used for earthquake detection and research, imaging of the Earth's interior, and contribute to the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is an international organization that will be established upon the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a Convention that outlaws nuclear test explosions. I ...

's (CTBTO) International Monitoring System. *Archiving and distribution of seismological and other geophysical research data and data products. *Maintenance and deployment of seismic,

magnetotelluric Magnetotellurics (MT) is an electromagnetic geophysical method for inferring the earth's subsurface electrical conductivity from measurements of natural geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation at the Earth's surface. Investigation depth ran ...

, and other portable instrumentation for Principal Investigator-led research projects. *Education, workforce development, and outreach related to seismology and geoscience.

References

{{Reflist Seismological observatories, organisations and projects Geodesy organizations Research organizations in the United States

Background

EarthScope Primary Instrument Center

NSF GAGE Facility

NSF SAGE Facility

See also

References