SCIGN, UNAVCO and CICESE have collaborated to install a permanent GPS station and VSAT satellite communications system on Isla Guadalupe. VSAT is the only viable alternative for real time data communications with the island which lies too far from the mainland of the Baja Peninsula to allow regular radio telecommunications methods. Because of its position on the Pacific Plate the site is of strategic importance for the SCIGN array and for the upcoming Plate Boundary Observatory initiative. The island is clearly on the Pacific Plate and is well away from the influences of North American - Pacific Plate boundary motion. The island is considered to be seismically and volcanically quiescent, and it is much closer to the California and coastal Baja Peninsula borderland than the next closest Pacific plate sites (in the Hawaiian islands).

The VSAT system is currently being upgraded to solve a power problem that has caused intermittent data transmissions. Photo by John Galetzka of the USGS Pasadena/SCIGN office.

Last modified Thursday, 17-Nov-2005 03:58:00 UTC

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