MRI-R2 Consortium: Development of a National Geoelectromagnetic Facility

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Schultz0960342This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This MRI R2 award will provide NSF funding over 24 months to develop a instrumentation to support a National Geoelectromagnetic Facility (NGF). The facility will allow researchers to image Earth?s near-surface, crust and mantle electrical properties in three dimensions and at high-resolution. Rock and mineral electrical properties are defined by the presence and chemistry of magmatic and aqueous fluids, bulk chemical and mineral composition, formation temperature, and hydrogen and other volatiles content. The NGF will consist of 27 founding member institutions and 54 participating PIs. The facility will incorporate a national pool of geoelectromagnetic equipment. The equipment will be developed and fabricated by the OSU and the Zonge Engineering and Research Organization and maintained for checkout by research PIs. The instruments will be modular and low-power. They will be able to measure geoelectromagnetic variations over a micro-hertz to kilo-hertz range, imaging natural and artificial fields. NGF instruments will be critical for opening new research avenues and supporting ongoing studies in water, mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, CO2 sequestration, hydrologic and geothermal research, geomicrobiolgy, climate change studies, contaminant and reservoir monitoring, volcanic hazards studies, and geotechnics. This effort will establish a capability currently unavailable in the US. A pooled-instrument model will allow access to EM equipment and data products. The instrument pool will support a broad spectrum of research including seismology, glaciology, hydrology, exploration, climate change, hazards and geomicrobiology. It will support numerous investigators at multiple institutions. In so doing, associated graduate and undergraduate students will gain instrument access and EM experience. An existing outreach program (Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience) will be supported. A reference design for the new instrumentation has already been developed. Interface development and further benchmarking will ensue after release of the acquisition protocol to the community. Successful testing and validation will lead to design turnover and subsequent manufacture by the commercial partner. ***