The Cascadia Initiative is a $10M ARRA project to build an onshore/offshore
network of seismic and geodetic stations from Cape Mendocino in California to Cape Flattery
in Washington. The network, which will run for several years, is targeted at understanding the
structure and processes of this subduction margin, which has a history of large earthquakes every
300-500 years. The Cascadia Initiative is a community experiment: the data will be made freely
available as quickly as possible.
Half of the funds were allocated to build 60 ocean-bottom seismometers. These instruments,
which are being built by the three OBSIP IICs (SIO, WHOI and LDEO), will have Trillium Compact seismometers and
pressure gauges. A subset of the instruments will be trawl-resistant and will be deployed
on the continental shelf.
The first OBS deployments are being scheduled for early summer, 2011. The network configuration and
site locations will be determined at a planning workshop in Portland, Oregon in October, 2010.
