It took nine months to coordinate a date and time to get out into the field, but Young Explorer Award winner Aron Curzon, now a senior at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon, recently joined USGS geologist Mike Rymer, USGS employee / kite aerial photographer Scott Haefner, and DF staff member Renea Nielsen in Owens Valley, California, to photograph and document a suspected fault line.
Rymer had chosen this research site because topographic images taken from an airplane had indicated a possible fault line in the Alabama Hills region of Owens Valley. Using KAP, Rymer planned to photograph the fault area at a low angle and compare the images with topographic images and seismic mapping of the same area. Low-angle images made with kite aerial photography can provide a more refined view of what are sometimes very subtle variations in landscape than can images taken from a plane or satellite.
Though inconsistent winds and damage to one camera impeded the process, the crew was able to photograph this faulted area as well as other documented fault lines in the region by guiding the camera along the perimeter of the faults. Rymer will analyze the topographic detail of the landscape at USGS to determine the extent of fault movement.
Link here to learn more about how USGS uses kite aerial photography to study fault lines.
Curzon will present an account of his field research experience on November 18, 2006, at the annual dinner of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of The Explorer’s Club co-sponsor of the award. Link here to learn more about the purpose of the Young Explorers program.
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