Sweating the Data!

As some of you know I have been offshore for the last 20 days collecting seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico. It is starting to feel like a lifetime! I was lucky to be invited as part of a scientific team led by Dr. Tip Meckel from the Bureau of Economic Geology and Dr. Nathan Bangs from the Institute of Geophysics to acquire some data using a relatively new seismic acquisition system (P-Cable). This has been my first experience offshore and it has proven to be both rewarding and challenging. The rewards come from the opportunity to learn about the whole process that involves offshore seismic acquisition operations. The challenges come from living conditions on a small and old boat.

Sun set from a vessel that should not be named somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico

As a seismic interpreter I saw acquisition operations from a distant fence. Those geophysists do their thing and I get the processed data. Not a big deal. Many years ago I went to an onshore seismic acquisition project in eastern Venezuela as part of a training program. That previous experience looks now a bit distant and I was too young to fully appreciate the magnitude of what was happening around me. From now on I’ll be more appreciative of each seismic line I see because it’s taking us ~2.5 hours to acquire each of them on this cruise (if everything goes as plan). I am also starting to think that some geophysists are trained to become “masters of the universe” because they know everything! How I was supposed to know that the 60 Hz noise on the data was coming from the ship generators? Maybe a microwave? I also learned that grounding equipment is very important!

Geophysists working in acquisition projects seem to develop some sort of a special spiritual aura that allows them to stay cool on situations that can look to the rest of us as absolute chaos. Nathan: “Every problem has a solution” and sure enough the solution was found at some point. These guys are incredible sources of knowledge. Experience counts! They actually have a brilliant sense of humor, even though it takes a while to tune into their very nerdy jokes.

I hope we can soon share results from this adventure with the wider world. I would definitely repeat the experience (on a different boat!). For those of you interested on the system, I recommend you check out the P-Cable webpage. We have the equipment! Let me know if you want to invest in our next expedition.

Unrelated issue, I think you should all read this wonderful article. I deserve to be allowed to a bit of egocentric extravaganza after all these days out here!

Close to loose our minds sometimes but never our sense of humor. That would be the end us!

Technology is a Bless!

As you probably already know, the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is “an international research organization that conducts seagoing expeditions to study the history of the Earth recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor.” I am sure I am not adding anything new here. This program makes available their scientific findings and data to the public through their webpage but sometimes finding what you are looking for can be a bit of a headache. The good news is that they have improved their “Google Earth Scientific Borehole map” and this tool really makes the difference. There are instructions on how to download and install the Google Earth plug-in in the following web address: http://www.iodp.org/borehole-map/ 

This is my short version of how to do it:

1.  You need to have Google Earth on your computer. This is free software and you can download and install the package using this link http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html
2.  Open Google Earth
3. Go to Add on the main menu
4. Select Network Link
5. A window will pop-up
6. On the ‘Name:’ field type IODP
7. On the ‘Link:’ field copy and paste the following link: http://campanian.iodp-mi-sapporo.org/google/data/iodp.kml
8. Voila! You should be able to see the IODP directory on the left column under places so make sure that the box is checked

Keep in mind that you will be able to see the location of the boreholes but once you try to access the data trough the links you will need to create an account with IODP. Creating this account is pretty simple and it gives you automatic access to reports and other useful data. Some information, like images for bathymetric maps will require additional authorization and they provide a contact email address to request access. There you go!

IODP Data on the GOM using Google Earth - active links will allow you to access data and reports

Since we are talking about cool sites, then let’s also talk about mareano! This webpage contains bathymetric maps and a series of tools that allow you to see information about sediment composition, biotopes and habitats in Norwegian waters. An online GIS interface makes it very easy to select different layers of information and to navigate trough the data. Highly recommended!

MAREANO has an online GIS tool that allows you to display lawyers with different data types

MAREANO maps also have active links that provide access to higher resolution images that you can download

The Ocean Explorer webpage from NOAA is also an online gem with lots of updated information  about ongoing offshore exploration around the world. Check it out!

Atlantic Canyons Undersea Mapping 2012 Expedition

Well! I shall go and prepare for my own offshore exploration adventure. I’ll be out at sea with a team of scientists who will be acquiring seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico for the next two weeks. There are three things that concern me: 1) hope hurricanes stay away from the area, 2) hope I do not get seasick since I’ll be the only woman onboard and “I’m no chicken!” and 3) hope we have internet access, otherwise this might become the biggest of challenges. No Internet? Really?

Busted!

I was reviewing the work of someone who shall remain nameless and who happens to be a good technical person. This individual is pretty young and had never written a paper before. I was looking at the first draft of the document and I was editing the technical aspects of the paper when I found the following reference:

X-Author (in press) Title about something geologic: Bulletin of Something Important

This individual had pursued this work in ‘2001’ as part of an unpublished report (I’ll keep the real dates obscured for the sake of ‘privacy’) and I thought that maybe this particular reference might have been already published by the time I was reading this draft (2002). I decided to go to my favorite database ‘Science Citation Index’ also known as ‘Web of Knowledge’ and search for this reference. This is what I found:

X-Author (1991) Title about something geologic: Bulletin of Something Important, v. 7, no. 8, pp. 123-143

See what I am talking about? This reference was published 10 years before this author wrote the original unpublished report and 11 years before the first draft of the paper got to my desk. Busted!!!!!!

By this time my evil switch went to the ‘ON’ position. I went further and found out that most of the references on this draft were pretty old. I also found that ALL the references, including the ‘in press’ article, were contained in the most recent paper listed on the author’s reference list. Conclusion, the author only read one paper, copied all the references from that publication and didn’t even bother to recheck the accuracy of the reference list on Google Scholar.

A complete shame because I found the paper to be pretty good. The data was new, the analysis seemed to be consistent and well presented but then you always wonder about the technical integrity of everything else. What was the accuracy of most of these statements? Can I thrust all the other stuff as well? Are the scales accurate? (You know scales always torment me!).

My intention with this comment is not to scorch this particular author but to reflect about how we all put our reputations out there when we write something. It is very easy to see us embarrassingly naked if a reviewer actually does his/her work properly. An honest accidental mistake can be forgiven and forgotten even after publication (I must have several of those!), but an intentional offense like this one sticks on people’s minds (at least mine! not that it matters!). Maybe I am too old...

Finally, I was reading this entry from Wired Science last night: “The Classic, Beautiful and Controversial Books That Changed Science Forever” Really cool, hope you enjoy it too!