Miriam Lizzeth
Miriam Lizzeth is a student at Universidad del Mar Campus Puerto Ángel currently completing her research at University of Oregon under Dr. Diego Melgar.
For this internship I will be simulating the tsunami generated by the 1787 ~M8.6 San Sixto earthquake that affected Oaxaca coasts. San Sixto earthquake is known to be one of the largest events to have taken place in Mexico, and I will be using Geoclaw software to generate stochastic megathrust faul models in order to estimate the rupture area of this earthquake. The coseismic deformation from the stochastic fault modeling will be used to initiate tsunami wave simulations. Results will provide the inundation hazard areas for a tsunami event for Oaxaca coasts but, I will also develop higher resolution inundation models for the Puerto Angel coasts, this consideration will be carried out because the town is the nearest to the trench (only ~10 km).
Week 1&2
August 7th, 2019
My first week was really quiet because of the paperwork for UO on my first three days. But, I had time to getting settled in my new home and explore the city. It is very interesting to explore a new environment, now I am in the US. People have been kind and helpful. One of the things I like of my mornings here is to cross through the park by bike (there were about 6 years since the last time I ride a bike, so at the first time was a little scaring). Also, by the end of my first week, I read 3 papers that I am going to use for my research as background.
My second week was way more exciting because I started with the first simulation process. Resources I will be using for my work are bathymetry and topography data that I have taken from the Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. As well, I am going to use some data provided by my mentor as a subfault mesh for my study site. Anyway, I still need the information of the velocity model for the subduction zone over Oaxaca, but I am working with a simple 3 layer model that I found on bibliography.
First third goals
- Getting settled in a new country (there has been a long time since I practice my english, this is a bit challenging, but I am doing my best)
- Work on AGU abstract. This goal has already overcome but was hard to make my abstract while I had just arrived
- Being comfortable with python programming. I have worked with Matlab at my school before. So, I was confident in my skills. Now, for the internship, I will be using python and I have just too few experiences with it
- Getting comfortable riding a bike
Second third goals
- Run tsunami simulations along Oaxaca coasts with ~M8.6
- Analyze worse case scenarios, and evaluate inundation areas around Puerto Angel town
- Have a good development working with python and GMT
- Explore near Eugene cities, mountains and Oregon coast
Final third goals
- Finish the simulations and discuss results with my mentor
- Write my final report of the internship (this is a requirement for my university)
- Prepare my work to be presented on AGU
- Establish new goals to complete at my university. I want to use my research for my undergraduate thesis. Being said this, I will have to complete new challenges and work hard to make it real.
For now, I have completed some of my goals on the first 2 weeks I have been here. But I still have to put in much effort to achieve all of them!