Facility Support: AfricaArray

这笔赠款提供的NybladeSupport将部分支付一名本国技术人员的工资，并支付与开发非洲阵列地震网络有关的一些业务费用和监督费用。非洲阵列是一个新的泛非地球物理学培训和研究倡议，重点是地震学，已经建立，并得到威特沃特斯兰德大学、南非地球科学理事会、宾夕法尼亚州立大学和私营工业基金的部分支持。地震网络将由22个新的宽带台站组成，这些台站将补充南部和东部非洲7个国家的17个现有台站(并非全部宽带台站)。许多现有的短周期电台将升级为宽带仪器。非洲阵列技术人员将负责南非以外的网络运营。CG将处理南非境内的运营和维护需求。非洲阵列(由配套的地球物理项目EAR-044032资助)的科学目标是了解与非洲超级羽流有关的深部地幔和上地幔慢地震异常之间的关系。希望来自该网络的数据将能够探索超烟羽地震异常的可能的化学和动力学原因，并进一步阐明与东非裂谷带有关的地下结构。目前非洲大陆的17个台站地震台网分布太广，无法以高分辨率对这些构造进行成像。扩大的非洲阵列网络将使人们能够更详细地调查与地幔隆起、地表隆起、裂谷和火山作用有关的下地壳和地幔结构。非洲阵列还希望解决发展中的非洲大陆上的一个长期问题，即科学素养。该计划应进一步培训地学专业学生的技术和数据分析，为他们在国内政府、工业和教育领域的职业生涯奠定基础。所有非洲阵列数据最终将在IRIS数据管理系统(DMS)内存档。***

0446647NybladeSupport from this grant will partially underwrite the salary of an in-country technician and provide for some operational expenses and oversight costs associated with the development of the AfricaArray seismic network. AfricaArray is a new pan-African training and research initiative in geophysics that emphasizes seismology and has been set up and is being partially supported by the University of Witwatersrand, the South African Council for Geoscience (CG), Penn State University and private industrial funds. The seismic network will consist of 22 new broadband stations that will complement 17 existing stations (not all broadband) in seven countries in southern and eastern Africa. Many of the existing short-period stations will be upgraded to broadband instruments. The AfricaArray technician will be responsible for network operations outside of South Africa. The CG will handle operation and maintenance needs within South Africa. The scientific goals of AfricaArray (funded through a companion Geophysics project EAR-044032) are to understand the relationship between deep mantle and upper mantle slow seismic anomalies associated with the African Superplume. It is hoped that data from this network will allow exploration of plausible chemical and dynamic causes of the Superplume seismic anomaly and to further elucidate the subsurface structures associated with the east African Rift zone. The current 17 station seismic network on the African continents is too broadly distributed to image these structures with high resolution. An expanded AfricaArray network will allow more detailed investigations of lower crustal and mantle structures associated with mantle upwelling, surface uplift, rifting and volcanism. AfricaArray also hopes to address a long standing problem on the developing African continent, namely, scientific literacy. This program should further the training of geoscience students in techniques and data analysis that could position them for domestic careers in government, industry and education. All of the AfricaArray data will eventually be archived within the IRIS Data Management System (DMS). ***