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SAGE 1997

Jennifer Etter (San Diego State University) and John Granville (Vanderbilt University) operate the slide-hammer seismic source at the site of a buried Manhattan-era waste disposal trench at Los Alamos. The seismic refraction technique was able to locate the edges of the trench within ± 1 meter and to demonstrate that only a single wide trench, not two narrow trenches as previously supposed, was present.

In 1997 the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) brought 26 undergraduate and graduate students to New Mexico for an intensive, month-long program of classroom instruction and field study in the techniques of geophysical exploration. Students attending SAGE 1997 represented 22 institutions from the United States, Mexico, and Belgium. The core program included collection of geophysical data computer processing and interpretation and written and oral presentations by all participants. Participants spent three days studying the geology of different parts of the Rio Grande valley in order to better interpret their geophysical results. The course stresses the integration of data acquired by several geophysical techniques to solve basic and applied "geological" problems. SAGE is also designed to attract students in geophysics programs and from small colleges and universities that do not have geophysics options.

Students worked on three separate projects. The first was an ambitious study of part of the Rio Grande rift, imaging subsurface sedimentary units and buried faults to depths of several kilometers. This work was part an ongoing project in which each year's data are integrated with data collected from different areas in previous years. Students have the opportunity to merge their data with that collected by previous SAGE students to interpret the "broader picture." The techniques used during SAGE 1997 for this basin-scale project were seismic refraction/ reflection (using a Vibroseis source) and gravity. The Vibroseis technique uses hydraulically driven vibrators mounted on truck or tractor chassis to generate seismic waves.

Teaching Assistant and former SAGE student Victor Gonzalez (left) guides SAGE 1997 students Chelsea Buckley (Purdue University) and Robert Bielinski (University of Oregon) through the intricacies of field-processing data from ground-penetrating radar (GPR), acquired just minutes before at a buried Manhattan-era waste disposal site at Los Alamos. GPR was important for defining trenches because of large quantities of metallic debris in them.

The second project was an intermediate-scale study using gravity, magnetics, and magnetotellurics to study subsurface geologic structures in a residential development near Santa Fe, which is plagued by water shortages. This project was undertaken in cooperation with the New Mexico State Engineer's Office to help constrain hydrologic models. Students, many of whom have an interest in hydrological applications, acquired experience with an important applied problem. Finally, a small-scale survey, using seismic refraction ground-penetrating radar, resistivity, and magnetics was undertaken to study a Manhattan-era disposal site at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This study was of considerable interest to the Environmental Restoration project at Los Alamos, which is actively investigating trenches at the site for possible remediation. SAGE was able to provide the project with information regarding the number and geometry of trenches and to accurately defined edges of trenches. The SAGE investigation helped established the feasibility of using geophysical techniques for environmental applications, providing students with experience in a field in which many are likely to be employed.

Students Attending SAGE 1997