Quarterly Report to the Harry Reid Center

UCCSN-DOE Cooperative Agreement

Task ORD-FY04-006: Seismic Monitoring

PI: James N. Brune

UNR Seismological Laboratory

Report Period: 01/01/2004 – 03/31/2004

Progress:

During this reporting period (Jan.-Mar. 2004), we have maintained seismic operations with 30 real-time SGBDSN stations under the QA procedures that have been established with the HRC. Network uptime has been 99.5% over the three months.

All strong-motion network system checks and data submittals are up-to-date, and we completed a revision to IPR-004. In addition, we completed revisions to IPR-001, IPR-002, and IPR-003.

As of this reporting date (01/20/2004), we have completed analyzing the earthquakes in the YM vicinity through March 31; and there were 513 located events in this quarter. The largest event which occurred in this past quarter within the SGBDSN monitoring area was only M 2.3.

The draft of the report on the FY2003 seismic activity in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain is roughly half done. The seismicity and focal-mechanism datasets for FY2003 have been submitted to the TDA. In addition, we have redeveloped the seismicity catalog for the previous 7 fiscal years and submitted this to the TDA as a single dataset.

A draft report on the preliminary observations with accelerometers at three boreholes on the ESF pad has been completed and submitted for technical and QA review. The data on which the report is largely based has been submitted to the TDA.

A draft Software Definition Report for the kappa determination software was completed. The Software Activity Plan for the Refraction Microtremor (ReMi) software was also completed.

All preparations for the installation of the ESF seismic instruments at three locations have been completed. In addition cables have been constructed for connecting existing, 15-m spacing, 10 Hz geophones along the ESF main tunnel to a data acquisition unit.

Power equipment required for the UZ-16 installation has been delivered. A basic design has been developed for the UZ-16 data acquisition and data management system using a PC-104 computer with a multichannel digitizer. A software procurement document has been drafted.

A study identifying listric faulting in the 1993 Eureka Valley (southern Great Basin) earthquake sequence will be presented at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America in April.

Problems:

The slow progress on permitting sites for the Refraction-Microtremor (ReMi) surveys is delaying our schedule for doing this work. Of the total of 37 sites in our combined weak-motion/strong-motion network, only 14 have been approved for this work, which has been completed. Of the 37, the 3 in DVNP are not critical to the study, 3 more are sites for which UNR holds the permits, and one is on NAFB and logistically improbable; therefore we are looking to get DOE approvals at 37 – 14 – 7 = 16 more sites. In order to finish the ReMi surveys, reduce the data, and include the results in the kappa report for this fiscal year, we need these approvals before June.

A request was sent through the HRC for a modification of our equipment budget in late March. This request is to reallocate some funds initially budgeted for purchase of a turnkey acquisition system at UZ-16 to a software subcontract in order that the functionality can be met by combining developed software with common commercial hardware components. We need a quick response to this request.

Status of Funds:

As of 3/31/2004, we had expended $725K on Task 6. This represents just 42% of the total appropriated, $1727, whereas a linear drawdown of funds would be 50% after 6 months. We are roughly $138K (8%) underspent at this 6-month mark. We are contemplating the acceleration of equipment purchases for the IP-based, 5-year communications plan and may make a proposal for reallocation of our projected underrun to do that.

Plans:

In the next quarter (Apr.-Jun.) we plan to install the three accelerometers in the ESF tunnel. We also plan to begin data acquisition on a limited number of the ESF 10-Hz geophones. We will subcontract the software development for UZ-16 and begin the installation of power components there.

We will submit for review a report on the FY2003 seismicity in the vicinity of YM, and deliver the report on preliminary findings at the borehole accelerometer array on the ESF pad.

We expect to finish the software qualification for the two programs needed in the kappa project this coming quarter and produce the final kappa computations. We will complete as many ReMi surveys as possible, dependent on approval of work at the sites.