Fieldwork and Adventure

Fieldwork

TROODOS Network - 2017

During March and September 2017 I joined the team led by my PhD colleague Chris Ogden to service and subsequently pull-in the Imperial College seismic network (TROODOS) in Cyprus. These stations were deployed in collaboration with the Cyprus Geological Survey, capitalising on unoccupied seismograph vaults and other public buildings such as Forestry commission tool sheds!

Québec–Maine across three sutures Network - 2015

The QM-III network (Québec–Maine across three sutures) was formed from a collaboration between researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and Rutgers University. In the summer of 2015, I joined a field team to pull in data and stations deployed from the US-Canadian border into the centre of Québec. The data became publicly available through IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology) in Autumn 2017 and has been incorporated in tomographic inversions during the later part of my PhD (Boyce et al., 2019).

Imperial College Canadian Maritimes Network - 2015

During the period May 2015 - August 2015 I took part in the servicing and pull in of 10 Seis-Uk Instruments deployed in the Imperial College Canadian Maritimes Network in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick, Eastern Canada. The stations were situated in gardens of local residents, a blueberry farm, a Geological Survey of Canada rock store and a geological museum throughout Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These data were used to improve coverage in the eastern portions of the tomographic images I constructed during my PhD and Shear wave splitting analyses (Boyce et al., 2016, Gilligan et al., 2016). For more please check out our Astronomy and Geophysics article here

Adventure

Outwith seismology, my passion is cycling. Below are a few details of past trips.

Home 2 Rome - Summer 2018

In the summer of 2018, after my PhD viva and before starting my Postdoc in Cambridge I rode my bicycle >2,200km from my parents home in Warwickshire, UK to Rome, Italy (only including one or two trains…)

For the first leg in France (Caen - Bordeaux), I was joined by good friend Matt. We passed some awesome places, including the Le Mans race circuit and plenty of castles.

Matt headed home and I hopped on a train across to Nimes. I headed over Mont Ventoux (1,909m), down to the Mediterranean, and along the coast into Italy.

My cousin Iso came out to Genoa and joined me on the next leg to Florence via Porto Fino, the Cinque Terre, Pisa and the beautiful town of Lucca (I didn’t take any good pictures there though…).

On the last leg I rode through amazing hill-top Tuscan villages, along poplar-tree lined roads via Siena and down through the Lago di Vico caldera ending the in Rome at the Colosseum!

Tour du Mont Forez - Summer 2023

A short two day bike-packing trip with my buddy Gabriel! Taking the train to Montbrison from Lyon we rode up some quiet cols and through Ambert (famous for the Forme cheese) and ended the day with a beautiful descent into Le Puy-en-Velay for the overnight stay. Le Puy was hosting the National Boules Championships that weekend!

On day two we rode north through the Haute Loire Valley and back to Lyon for a beer by the river - Gabriel was tired… Incredible weekend !

Tour du Andalucia - Summer 2023

With my cousin Iso, in September ‘23 we bike-packed around Andalucia for 5 days, hitting the tourist spots by night, riding by day…

Day 1: After some drama with the Sevillian ‘Chinches de Cama’ we climbed into the mountains, passed by Arcos de la Frontera and stayed in the Parador de Ronda - highly recommended !

Day 2: Took on more big climbs, passed by the Gorge del Chorro, ate beige food and ended in Antequerra - not recommended.

Day 3: Encountered stormy weather in the mountains, more fig trees and some sheep, smashed a fanta in a petrol station, drank Aperol overlooking the Alhambra Palace (Grenada) - unbelievable building.