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Heavy metal. Graduate students in Rachel Abercrombie’s geodynamics course test equipment for a seismic refraction experiment on the BU Beach on March 30. The experiment, which the students performed for real on April 2 at a Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary in Belmont, Mass., involves hitting the ground to create seismic waves, whose measurements indicate characteristics of the rock structure below, such as the depth of bedrock and where the water table rests. Electronic receivers, or geophones, designed to pick up seismic vibrations are planted below the ground in a line, and the results are saved to a laptop computer for subsequent analysis. The test was successful, confirming that BU is built on slow-velocity sediments and landfill. Swinging the hammer is Jennifer Wade (GRS’06), and in the background (from left) are Lean Mehl (GRS’09), Gisela Fernandes (GRS’08), Eric Moore (GRS’09), Abercombie, a CAS and GRS associate professor of earth sciences, and Katherine Murphy (GRS’06). Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
22
April 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations