Endeavour EXTEND

This is a collaborative project involving scientists from the University of Washington (Wiliam Wilcock, Marine Denolle), Dalhousie University (Miao Zhang, Mladen Nedimovic, Alexandre Plourde) and Ocean Networks Canada - University of Victoria (Martin Heesemann). The proposal seeks to operate autonomous broadband ocean bottom seismometers (OBSs) from the Canadian National Facility for Seismological Investigations (NSFI) at the Endeavour segment of Juan de Fuca Ridge to complement the Ocean Networks Canada cabled seismic network. The experiment is motivated by the observation that seismicity rates on the Endeavour have been increasing in recent years and it is likely that the segment will experience another ridge spreading event that similar to the sequence of diking events that ruptured the entire segment between 1999-2005. The OBSs will be used to obtained improved earthquake catalogs, search for temporal changes in crustal velocity so as to address questions regarding the stresses that trigger diking events, the impact of propagating rift tips on the Endeavour hydrothermal vent fields, the impact of carbon dioxide exsolution on off axis seismicity, and the temporal patterns of aseismic strain surrounding diking events.