I rarely have a chance to sit in on the “Applied Science Program” at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists’ (SEG) annual meeting because I’m usually on my way to the airport. But SEG was in Houston this year, so I decided to attend. I’m glad I did.

The speaker was Rob Stewart, well known in geophysical circles for his research on multicomponent seismic and his wicked flute-playing abilities. But during his program, geared toward local high school students, he barely touched on multicomponent and didn’t mention flutes at all. He did, however, discuss things like a jungle floor covered with tarantulas, a cave full of vampire bats, and hitting the face mask of his space suit while trying to use a rock hammer.

The goal of the Applied Science Program is to pique the interest of students who might be interested in careers in science. I can’t imagine anyone better suited for this task. Stewart has an infectious enthusiasm about the world and earth science that finds him, in addition to teaching and running a lab at the University of Houston, traveling to such disparate places as Belize and Devon Island, near the North Pole, to test geophysical techniques on tricky problems, none of which have anything to do with finding oil and gas.

Stewart plants equipment in anticipation of imaging buried pyramids in Belize. (Photo courtesy of Rob Stewart)

He defined geophysics as helping to understand the past, protect the present, and enhance the future and then took the students on a bit of a travelogue, starting in Belize, where he is using a combination of seismic measurements and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to help archaeologists unearth pyramids. It is hoped that these techniques can help them determine where (or if) to dig without damaging historical evidence in the process. The tools are used to determine the tomography of the inside of the pyramid, a complicated labyrinth of caves and tunnels built up over years. Voids that appear on the GPR data are thought to be caves.

The next stop in Stewart’s travels was Montana, where he and some of his students are helping paleontologists find fossil remains of a group of juvenile diplodocus being excavated by a museum in Cincinnati. Again, GPR is being used to take near-surface measurements to see if the fossils can be imaged. Stewart said that data is still being processed.

Next, he visited Turtle Mountain in Alberta, Canada, the site of the most fatal landslide in North America. The mountain is still unstable, and another slide would threaten not only a nearby town but also a transcontinental highway and railway.

The mountain is a giant anticline and is being deformed by continuing compression. Stewart built a detection system combining seismic sensors and a weather station. The theory is that fractures will make noise well before a landslide occurs, and people can get advanced warning to evacuate, much like a tsunami or earthquake warning system.

The final stop was on Devon Island in Resolute Bay, the world’s largest uninhabited island. NASA has set up a Mars simulator colony here because the area is the most Mars-like place on earth — it’s cold, dry, dusty, and in the middle of a meteor crater.

The goal, from Stewart’s perspective, is twofold — one, to test sensors that might be able to find ice layers buried beneath the surface, and two, to test how easily humans can use these sensors while wearing baggy space suits.

After the formal presentation groups of students were taken to a nearby room to get hands-on experience taking GPR and seismic measurements. Stewart had gone to the trouble of taping seismic cables to the carpet at the George R. Brown convention center. Students took turns pushing the GPR carts and watching the monitors as the data was collected.

At least one of Stewart’s points seemed to hit home — he told the students that science is important, exciting, allows one to work with fun people, and can pay well. The first question was, “How much?” Hopefully in a few years they’ll find out for themselves.