Report
1: Snow Falling on Station Sites by Nano Seeber, Seismologist
at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
A blizzard provides new challenges
to the researchers searching for station sites for
their digital broadband seismographs.
Finding ones' way in the web of twisty roads is
challenging enough in sunny Italy; try it in a
blizzard! Today we made it across Volturara Pass
behind a snowplow. The going is indeed getting
tougher as the winter sets in the southern Apennines
with unusual fierceness. But Italy seems to abound
in those little indispensable surprises, such
as the lady at the petrol station half buried
in snow that took the time to explain how foolish
we were... and she showed us the only negotiable
way. In any case, the warmth of our Italian hosts
is amply compensating for the un-Italian weather.
Report
2: Holidays and Earthquakes
by John Armbruster, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The center of Grottamainarda where CAT/SCAN researchers
rang in the New Year.
CAT/SCAN researchers celebrated Christmas and New
Year's in Grottaminarda. For the holidays, we shifted
our efforts from installing new stations to collecting
samples of data from those already installed. On
December 30, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake shook the
area 70 km north of Grottaminarda, located in the
center of the valley of the Ufita River, and CAT/SCAN
researchers were asked by their co-investigators
working in Rome to assist in recording the aftershocks.
Report 3:
The Castle Strategy by Art Lerner-Lam, Director,
Center for Hazards and Risk Research
After installing a station in an old convent just
outside Montella, a building in Craco (pictured
above) seemed another perfect place for a seismograph
station, free from cultural noise that can cause
problems in seismic readings.
With the Twelfth Day marking
the close of the holiday season in this part of
the world, the CAT/SCAN instrument deployment
phase is kicking into high gear. This week, the
weather cleared and we received permission from
the "Department of the Belle Arti" to
install a station in the restored old convent
just outside (and above!) Montella. This is an
inspiring place, restored with sensitivity and
obvious pride. We drove to the site, climbing
a winding road through chestnut groves and small
pastures, and met the caretaker at the gate.
Report 4: A Collage
of Portraits by
Nano Seeber, Seismologist at the Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory
In Campana, researchers placed a seismograph in
this crypt, located below the alter of a church.
Each station we set up is a new window onto a
world of nuances and surprises — another
facet of the cultural and physiographic architecture
of southern Italy.
In the chilly wind of the
dying afternoon, Francesco was frolicking alone
in the little public garden overlooking a deep
chasm just east of Campana. His frail figure moved
in the graceful dance of a young person engaging
his growing body while lost in distant thoughts.
His response to my inquiry, however, was immediate
and intelligent.
Report 5: Working
in the Cave by
Chad Holmes, Graduate Student at the Earth &
Environmental Sciences
In a limestone cave off a path wending from a
convent, Alberto Frepoli, in yellow, discussed
the work to do with Chad Holmes, a graduate student
at the Earth & Environmental Sciences department.
Winter in southern Italy offers a beauty not often
noted by typical tourist guides. Early morning fog
settling in the countryside, where tiny movements
in the distance mark the passing of a herd of goats;
puffs of breath punctuating the air as we walk along
winding roads lined with buildings constructed before
our fathers' fathers; the pleasure of sipping on
a cup of thick hot chocolate with the consistency
of Hershey's Syrup after a long, chilly day spent
in the field — these are just some of the
experiences that proved as much a surprise as the
seemingly endless hospitality extended our way in
our recent travels.