Magnetotelluric Array

The magnetotelluric (MT) component of EarthScope’s USArray consists of both permanent and portable elements that measure naturally occurring electric and magnetic fields. The backbone component consists of seven permanent MT stations installed across the United States as a reference network. These data are integrated with other geophysical data to identify Earth's thermal structure and study the significance of fluids in the crust.

Twenty transportable MT systems complement the seven permanent MT stations. The transportable MT instruments are being used for deployments of approximately one-month duration on a nominal 70-km grid spacing for imaging of crustal and lithospheric conductivity structure in areas of special interest as proposed by the MT community and approved by NSF.

The MT stations and instruments are operated and maintained by Oregon State University under a subaward from IRIS.

IRIS - Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

EarthScope is a partnership extending throughout the Earth science community, including more than 100 universities, the National Science Foundation, US Geological Survey, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, regional seismic networks and state geological surveys.