Dear Friends,
After more than a year of drifting in the North Atlantic, batteries on the GPS beacons of the two runaway OBS from the Laurentian Fan test survey are running low. One GPS beacon is not communicating anymore. The other one, now some 350 km southwest of Lisbon, is communicating sporadically. It is unlikely that we will be able to recover these two instruments. But we at the NFSI and Guralp believe that problem with early unplanned release is now, after the retrofits, behind us and we are making progress toward second long-term tests of BOBS in the Tyrrhenian Sea with the deployments now scheduled for the end of the first week of February. We also have a job ad out for a Marine Instrument Technologist that will close February 1, in case you know of someone with the right skills that may be interested.
Registration for the 2nd NFSI Workshop in Marine Seismology, to be held May 22-26, 2023, will open on Monday, January 23, and close on Wednesday, February 22. Having significant sponsorship, the registration fee is set at only 150 Canadian dollars, tax included. This registration fee covers the ice-breaker event on Sunday, lunch boxes and two coffee/tea/cookie breaks each day Monday through Friday, a half-day field expedition for OBS deployment/recovery training at sea, and the goodbye reception and dinner Friday evening. Because we are capping the number of participants at 40, those that have expressed interest for the workshop have first dibs and will receive emails with a link to the registration page. After two weeks, if any spots are left, we will send another call to see if there is anyone else that has not expressed interest but would like to attend the workshop. Accommodation booking at the Gerard Hall will open later on Monday, January 23. There are 9 single and 9 double rooms available. These rooms are very affordable ($37.50 CAD + 15% tax for a single room and $57.75 CAD + 15% tax for a double room) so we ask that you please let the students and postdocs book first in the initial two weeks of registration. Because double rooms are booked by a single person, students and postdocs, please write to Pascal and Mladen so that we can work on finding you a person to share a room with. We will send more information about booking accommodation in our emails inviting you to register.
Best,
Mladen, Pascal, and Graeme