Island wife and I are off to Turkey again on Sunday. We go to Izmir where we will get on the R/V Piri Reis. The small ship is named after someone who made maps 500 years ago. It is 36 m-long and packed full of people acquiring data: very cramped but I prefer it to bigger ships in some ways.

We will acquire sub-bottom acoustic data (seismic reflection data) across the many fault strands of the Central branch of the North Anatolia fault. These strands seem to have been active for at least the last half million years, and are still active. But they must slip far slower than the northern branch, which has been slipping at 18-19 mm/yr ++/-- for the last half million years.

I am not likely to report from sea because I don't think the ship has internet, and we don't have smart phones (which would have worked when close to shore). Maybe after the cruise: I stay in Turkey for 2 weeks after: a talk at a meeting in Istanbul.

Some news: I'm funded to work on existing data in Ross Sea. a total of 6 1/2 months distributed through 2014-2016. So I still need to write proposals, but likely will keep me from quitting research.

Chris