Dear AGU,

Greetings from near Shreveport, Louisiana!

This is one of the very first field shots from the ISLA project backdropped against a colorful rainbow. The ISLA project aims to monitor seismicity and study the subsurface in NW Louisiana over the next two years. We first took delivery in Baton Rouge of a whopping 1300 pounds of seismic equipment loaned to us by PASSCAL and then started our installation of 10 broadband seismic stations on June 29-30 near the Texas-Louisiana border, about a five-hour drive north of Baton Rouge. The photo was taken at dusk and shows a hole being dug for one of our sensors. The deployment teams were made up mainly of a diverse group of students from Louisiana State University, Tulane University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette. We put 6 stations in the ground in a record 24 hours! Our network was up and running just in time to capture recordings of seismic waves from the distant July 6, M7.1 and July 4, M6.4 earthquakes in central California!

Stay tuned for more seismic updates from the field!

Justin Kain, MS Candidate, Louisiana State University

Rasheed Ajala, PhD Candidate, Louisiana State University

Madison Menou, BS Candidate, Louisiana State University

Betina Brockamp, BS Candidate, Tulane University

Samantha Hilburn, BS Candidate, Tulane University

Brennan Brunsvik, MS Graduate, Univ. of Louisiana at Lafayette

Mario Ruiz, IRIS international intern, Univ. de la Plata,  Argentina

Alissa Scire, PASSCAL Data Group Supervisor

Patricia Persaud, Cynthia Ebinger & Gabriele Morra