U N A V C O , A N O N - P R O F I T U N I V E R S I T Y - G O V E R N E D C O N S O R T I U M , F A C I L I T A T E S G E O S C I E N C E R E S E A R C H A N D E D U C A T I O N U S I N G G E O D E S Y.
The UNAVCO Facility
The UNAVCO Facility in Boulder, Colorado is the primary operational activity of UNAVCO and exists to support university and other research investigators in their use of geophysical sensor technology for Earth sciences research. The Facility performs this task by providing state-of-the-art instrumentation, ancillary equipment, and field engineering support for projects; installing, operating and maintaining continuous GNSS/GPS networks globally; undertaking new technology development and evaluation of commercially available products for research applications; and by archiving geophysical sensor data and data products for future applications. The Facility is funded under multi-year grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Measurements of Crustal Deformation in the Rio Grande Rift Region
January 26, 2012
The Rio Grande Rift GPS Experiment, funded by the National Science Foundation's EarthScope program, provides a regional enhancement to the broader Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) network. Its purpose is to measure relative motions at the Earth's surface and determine how the Rio Grande Rift region in Colorado and New Mexico is deforming. As the results published in the journal Geology show, the Rio Grande Rift GPS network has answered the fundamental question in the affirmative: "Is the rift still active?" More
Haiti GPS Network
January 26, 2012
Following the earthquake of Jan 2010, 6 CGPS stations were installed in key locations around Haiti to measure the after effects and ongoing activity in the region. Of these 6 stations, only 1 was transmitting data back to UNAVCO reliably by the middle of 2011. With that information in hand, a maintenance trip was deemed necessary. This trip would restore these sites to working order as the data being lost was very important to understanding the region after the major event of 2010. More
Geodynamics of Ridge Collision on the Caribbean Plate and Panama Block: Part 2 Network Completion
January 26, 2012
During a two week trip in November 2011, two additional continuous GPS stations were installed to complete a network designed to measure the deformation of the Panama tectonic block. This project is part of ongoing research on the geodynamics of the plate tectonic regiem in Central America. One of these stations is also part of a larger National Science Foundation project called CocoNet. Once completed, the CocoNet project will provide data on plate deformatoin, weather and climate across the Carribean region. More
PLUTONS GPS Installations, Part 3
January 26, 2012
PLUTONS is an integrative geophysical, geochemical, and geomorphological study involving researchers from many US, Canadian, South American, and British institutions. The project aims to uncover evidence for active mid-crustal intrusion and crustal formation at Uturuncu and Lazufre volcanoes, located in the central Andes. This region is significant due to its history of large, caldera-forming eruptions. More
Carbon Sequestration monitoring using GPS
January 26, 2012
Carbon Sequestration is a process for mitigating the contribution to global warming by capturing the excess CO2 emitted from fossil fuel burning power plants (and other industrial facilities). The CO2 is captured at its source and then injected into depleted oil and gas reservoirs. However, the ramifications of long term CO2 storage are at this point uncertain. In addition, the process is expensive and could increase the fuel needs of a power plant, depending on its proximity to a storage location. More
