Successful trip to Rote Island, first 2 stations installed

Finally, after 3 weeks shuffling through bureaucracy and gathering supplies in Kupang, we set out for Pulau Rote (Rote Island) to install two stations.  Now that we have moved into a set of rented rooms in a shared housing complex, we needed to catch a taxi to get to BMKG.   According to island time, the taxi was 30 minutes late, just barely making us on time to meet the truck that hauled our equipment from BMKG to the harbor.  We loaded up the truck and went on to the Kupang harbor – a location that has been strategically important for Dutch trading since the 1600’s.

Ferry leaving the port from Kupang.

Cooper riding the boat -- like a boss.

The ferry to the town of Ba’a (Rote) is about a two-hour ride across calm water this time of year.  Each end of the ferry ride was full of eager porters looking to make easy money from people who do not want to carry their own cargo from the boat to the parking lot.  In Ba’a, the unacceptably high and non-negotiable porter fee resulted in us carrying all of our gear to the van awaiting our arrival.  A solid intro to field work labor.  The van waiting for us belongs to the Nemberala Beach Resort, also our destination for the first station and our place to stay for the next few days.  Prior to heading to Nemberala, Nova delivered letters to the Rote administration, effectively moving our way down the disconnected chain of governmental oversight.

Our ride to the resort.  The building in the reflection is one of the many government sites we went to to deliver letters.

Nemberala is a village located in the southwest coast of Rote.  It is famous for it’s exceptional surf, providing an excellent setting for those looking for consistent and high-quality breaks.  The reef offshore produces mostly left-hand waves due to the winds predominantly arriving from the south across the Indian Ocean.  When combined with the stellar resort, this place is certainly worth the effort to get there.   Owner Greg Rogers has been particularly helpful in arranging things up to this point.  He set us up with a location to put the first station on the resort grounds.

The first station installed on Rote at Nemberala Resort.  In the far distance, looking west, is the offshore break.  The seismometer is under the big pile of sand, the datalogger and power supply is under the solar panel.

The other target for installation was in the other side of Rote, in the village of Papela. We hired a taxi for the day to take us there, cautiously optimistic that we would be able to install the station and return to Nemberala. Our first means of business was to meet the village leader to inform him of our intentions.  This was (and will continue to be) a priority, as this the most important level of oversight for the project.  At this point, we are four levels of permitting into our project – national, provincial, regency within province, and local.

The village leader is kind and helpful, and directed us to the police to suggest our installation to take place there.  We met at the police station and found everyone there to be helpful and accepting of our efforts.  This all must have a lot to do with Nova’s terrific personality and obvious capability to explain the importance and utility of our research project.

By the time we started working, it was 2pm and very hot.  As we began to work at a furious pace, we had a hint of being able to return to the resort for a second beachside stay.  A secondary effect of this hard work is to separate us from other bules (white people) that visit the island – it was assumed we were looking for help with labor… they seem to enjoy watching us work.  The police chief showed up toward the end of the install and was exited to see what we doing.  It was good to know that our site would be looked over while we are away.

A typical scene at an international install.  

The police deputy, Cooper, Nova, police chief Pak Ahmed, Leland

We finished before sunset and arrived back at the resort by 7:30pm, a surprisingly great result.  The next morning, we took the ferry back to Kupang to organize our next round of installs.  The water was a bit more choppy going back, but the satisfaction of a bit of progress made it all fine.

Blood puke

The common tradition of chewing on Areca nuts is practiced in Nusa Tengarra Timor (NTT).  It is similar to chewing tobacco, but chewing on the nuts produce a deep red color.  Hence, Nova indicates that is called 'blood puke' in Bahasa.  I have no idea if this street art is meant to reference this practice, but I really like this sketch that someone drew along the streets of Kupang.

About 1m tall piece of street art.  My working title is 'Blood Puke Vampire.'

Working with BMKG staff and testing equipment

Our testing of equipment and collection of supporting materials has been greatly supported by the Bureau of Mining, Klimatogi, and Geophysics (BMKG) staff in Kupang.  We met with them prior to the arrival of our equipment to find them welcoming and willing to contribute to our efforts.  The director of this branch of BMKG, Pak (Mr./Sir) Sudaryono, clearly understands the value of working with us and the potential for upcoming collaboration.

Taken in front of BMKG office.  (left to right) Pak Sudaryono, Pak Suwarman,
Leland O'Driscoll, Nova Roosmawati, Cooper Harris

Making our way around Kupang is challenging owing to the combination of traffic, scarcity of taxis, and disorganization of the city's business centers.  The lack of high quality building materials complicates the matter.  We have assembled most of our inventory, but this all only matters if our equipment is working properly.  The IRIS institution PASSCAL has provided 15 sets of seismic equipment to accompany the 15 sets owned by the University of Southern California.  Eight USC sets were previously installed in Timor Leste, leaving 22 stations to deploy Indonesia.  Two days of testing resulted in the confirmation that the equipment survived the long journey from the U.S. to Kupang.

BMKG staff looks on and becomes familiar with the PASSCAL equipment.

Prepping for deployment in Kupang

We finally navigated the challenging immigration procedure in Jakarta and made our way to our field base, Kupang. By all means, this is an entirely different place - we may as well be in a new country. The culture is different, the government seems to operate independent from the capitol city, and transportation is achieved through much different means. Getting around Kupang is most commonly done via bima, a small minibus that is crammed with riders and blasting all kinds of western culture dance/party music.

This example is from an early morning, yet to be fully loaded. 

Bima by day.

Building and construction materials are sparse and of low quality, making our prep for field work challenging. All assembly is guided by word of mouth. The only thing that is clear is that our ultimate station design will be unconventional...

Kupang is located along a quiet shielded north facing cove at the westernmost tip if Timor island. The scenery is beautiful, an the evening brings a satisfying cool down.

A view from the Aston Hotel looking northward over the coast. 

Evening sunset in the west of Kupang. 

For now, more assembly, field prep, and testing of equipment. We are working on Sunday - typically the day off for the dominantly Catholic population in this region.  Things are moving along, we all are approaching good health - Cooper has weathered some bad stomach bacteria and a likely viral infection, I (Leland) am working through a mild cold, and Nova remains awesome. A LOT more work is to come. 

Establishing connections in Kupang

After arriving in Kupang we established many important connections for the project.  First, I was invited to meet the dean and professors in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the Universitas Nusa Cendana.  They were pleased to have us visit and invited us to install one of the stations on campus (our first station in Indonesia is sited !!).

Our BMKG colleagues from the Kupang office showed us their magnetic observatory and the BATI seismic station outside of town.  BATI is a CTBTO seismic station that is installed in a Japanese bunker from WWII.  The sensor is about 30 meters inside of a hill on a 3 meter platform.

WWII bunker entrance to the BATI station

Trillium sensor inside the vault.

Entrance to the station

Communication of the seismic data.

After visiting the BMKG Kupang office to make final plans for our deployment in NTT then we got to meet Governor Frans Lebu Raya of NTT (East Nusa Tenggara). He was very kind to invite us to his residence for tea.

In the governor's palace in Kupang. From left: Prof. Satria Bijaksana (ITB), me, Gov. Raya, Pak. Sugeng (BMKG-Jakarata), Pak Sudaryano (BMKG), and Pak Tyastama (BMKG).

BMKG visit during Molucca Sea earthquake

Nova and I visited BMKG in Jakarta on September 10th to formally establish our collaboration with them on the Banda arc project. We had a tour of their earthquake and tsunami warning center ... which is awesome.  But the best part was the M6.3 earthquake in the Molucca Sea that happened while we were there! Alarms went off, phones ringing, "earthquake, earthquake", lights flashing, analysts quickly picking waveforms to update the location and focal mechanism, watching the seismic waves arrive from all across Indonesia in real time!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! And no tsunami or damage!

Earthquake and tsunami warning center ... kinda like NASA!

Wear during an earthquake!  (No one did though).

Waveforms appearing in realtime as they travel across the archipelago.

Adventures traveling in and around Jakarta

Banda Arc project PI Dr. Meghan Miller and colleague Nova Roosmawati have been establishing the project by finalizing visas, travel permits, immigration paperwork, and much, much more.  Over the past few weeks, they have visited RISTEK (Research Permitting Agency), Immigration, Police, our host institution ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung), and Kupang (our future field base).  A recent trip to acquire topographic maps of the field area provide a small snapshot of the experience so far: 

1) It took 2 hours to get the Badan Informasi Geospasial agency (BIG) by car, about 60 km outside Jakarta

2) We took the commuter train back to central Jakarta which was awesome! It has a "women only car" that is pink, and even though it is 92 deg F and 92% humidity outside if smells nice.  Plus, it is filled with laughing, cheerful women.

Meghan and Nova - riding with style

3) We got off the train at the wrong stop so we took a bajaj to our hotel.  So much fun! The whole trip was chaos but we now have 214 paper 1:25,000 scale topo maps for the project.  P.S. There is warning to not eat stinky durian fruit on the train!!

Among various warnings of what not to do on train, eating durian is one of them (far right)

Stay posted as the install of 22 seismic stations in the Indonesian portion of the Banda project unravels!