The NERD deployment is almost done!

We've got 6 stations left for the Northern Ecuador Rapid Deployment. Four should go in tomorrow and then Anne, Colton, and Mario, the director of the Instituto Geophisica, are returning to Quito. Susan and I will then finish the last two stations before heading home Thursday night.

Today we met with a really fantastic landowner. It's a couple who own a large amount of land near Pedernales and are preparing it for a housing development. They have lots of beautiful open land in the mountains providing for clear sky views and quiet sites. Perfect for our ground motion sensing instruments powered by solar panels. They were interested in seismology and geophysics and spent the afternoon with us while we installed. It takes extra time to install a station and interact with folks, but it is so rewarding to meet people who care about what we are doing. It really made me feel good about the site and the deployment overall. So a nice boost of positivity is helping lead us into the home stretch.

I thought today I'd make a deployment map. I've only put in the main shock and shaded the approximate area we are deploying in, but hopefully it shows that we're really covering the region near the earthquake. Once some data is at the IRIS DMC we'll be able to more readily make the station coverage maps. Hopefully we'll also have locations from the French and UK groups to make the full collaborative deployment show in its full glory.

Today's drive through the damaged city of Pedernales was really an eye opener. We see pictures on tv or the internet trying to portray the devastation, but it doesn't hit you until you see it first hand. We're sad for the lives that are lost and those that need to pick up and start afresh. Everything you've worked your life for is gone in seconds of strong shaking and then short jolts of weaker shaking remind you of your loss. It is easy for us, sometimes, to sit in a comfy armchair and think about what the wiggles of the seismometers tell us about the earth, but we must always keep in mind that those wiggles are generated by disasters.

A building destroyed in Pedernales

A building destroyed in Pedernales

Lunch - pork with lentils, rice, and plantains

At EC16 - "ANNA" with myself (Rob), Evan from IG, and the landowners, Larry, and Anna.

EC16 with Susan, Evan, Larry, and Anna

Location map with the main shock near the coast, volcanoes in red, and our approximate deployment area in shaded yellow (note, we are only deploying on land, no ocean bottom seismometers in this deployment).