Lara Wagner, staff scientist at DTM, presents the first of four lectures in our annual Neighborhood Lecture Series. The key to life’s evolution on Earth is the development and persistence of plate tectonics, a planetary process that affects everything from the mineral composition of the continents to the existence of liquid water on Earth’s surface.
To study the inner workings of our world, we need to point our “telescopes” down to look deep into the Earth’s interior to see how plate tectonics allows the planet to “breathe” and evolve and, in turn, allow life to, also.
Seismology allows us to “see” inside the Earth much like a CAT scan allows a doctor to see inside a human body. Instead of light waves or X-rays, seismologists use seismic waves to take “snapshots” of the planet’s interior structure. This allows us to learn a great deal about both the ancient tectonic history responsible for creating these internal structures, and the ongoing plate tectonic processes that sustain life while also producing some of the world’s most devastating natural disasters.
The ability of seismometers to image the planet’s interior depends on how close the seismic sensors are to each other and how big of an area the sensors cover. This talk will show recent examples of high density/ broad aperture deployments, and look at the science potential for the newest generation of seismic equipment. By sharpening our image of the deep Earth’s interior, we will understand better what makes our planet special, and what we might expect from planets we find elsewhere in the cosmos.
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