Bowling Green, Ky. - Gina Cesin, a Western Kentucky University geoscience graduate student from Miami, recently returned from the one-month Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) program.

The program was sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory branch of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, and convened at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico.

SAGE is an immersion program that focuses on exposing attendees to previous and current geophysical techniques. The program was organized to provide students with focused lectures, field-work opportunities, data analysis and interpretation techniques, and public speaking experience.

The geophysical techniques covered during the program were magnetic tellurics, gravity, seismology (reflection/refraction), electrical resistivity and transient electro magnetics. In addition, guest lecturers provided information about the expectations of, and employment possibilities for, emerging geophysicists. The guest lecturers came from major corporations such as Exxon-Mobile, Chevron, the U.S. Geological Survey and regional engineering firms.

Attending the SAGE program provided valuable exposure to the techniques that Cesin will apply in her thesis research titled “Applying Geophysical Techniques to Locate Subterranean Tunnels Along the Southeastern Arizona-Mexico Border,” which she is conducting under the supervision of Dr. Nick Crawford in WKU's Center for Cave and Karst Studies.

During the SAGE program, she developed a local research project titled “Muting Reflection Seismic Data of the La Bajada Fault Zone Along Highway 22 Near Santa Fe, N.M.,” where she had the opportunity to utilize many of the geophysical techniques required for her thesis research.

The competitive 2005 SAGE program included eight National Science Foundation-funded undergraduates and 12 graduate students from 15 universities, with seven of the graduate students from international institutions.

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For information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555.