On our fourth day of fieldwork (February 25), we had ourselves a mouthful of a plan. We would drive a two or three-hour total loop up to the northwest coast stopping around every 30 minutes to either deploy or recover a site. We hit the ground running with a deployment in a pasture that looked just like every past pasture we had deployed in; they all blend together rather quickly. What makes this one distinct was that Samer and Gabriel took it upon themselves to become cattle herders. But not just any cattle, but a very large bull that refused to leave our designated deployment area. Samer grabbed a stick and started hooting and hollering at it. Shockingly, this strategy was successful, and no one was injured.
This was our only hiccup and after a successful deployment (where I dug a very cute magnetometer hole) we quickly moved on to recover a site we deployed in another pasture 2 days prior.
Unfortunately, this recovery was not as expected. The batteries we are using are supposed to last for 40 hours ideally, meaning plenty of time to record data that can penetrate deep into the ground. However, the battery at this site supplied power for just around 18 hours before dying, meaning the batteries are not working as they should for some reason. Fortunately, this is an easy fix since we can just use two batteries connected together rather than one battery for all future sites. Thankfully, the site was in a quiet location and so even with the shorter run time, the data ended up looking quite good so we decided to recover the site anyway.
Fruit seems to grow everywhere in Costa Rica: oranges, mangoes, bananas, star fruit, guavas, and more! We spotted some fresh cashew fruit (shown below) en route to the next site. This was my first time trying cashew fruit! It was good but very astringent or tart. I also learned that raw cashew nuts fresh off the tree contain urushiol which is a toxic resin that can cause skin irritation. The actual cashew nut part is encased in a very tough shell making it almost impossible to eat. Regardless, it was good to know.
Our next planned deployment was supposed to be on the land of a tourist resort on the very northern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. This plan went up in flames, literally. The resort was in the middle of dealing with a large wildfire. After almost losing some toes to a very large firetruck, we decided moving on to another nearby location would be our best course of action. The “nearby location” was un-scouted because our incredibly helpful and life-saving field coordinator, Carlos Ramírez, had driven all over the peninsula already and scouted pretty much everything else on the whole peninsula except this point. We did not mind having to scout at all given that Carlos is the biggest reason this fieldwork campaign has progressed so efficiently thus far. Scouting meant that we would have to find a spot to put the instrument ourselves, essentially meaning we drive around and knock on people’s doors to ask them if they have land they would be willing to let us use for two days for earthquake research. After only two dead ends, we stumbled across a man leading a group of men on what seemed to be a tour of his land. A short conversation later and we were on our way to deploy in a shaded horse pasture.
In our excitement of finding a site, we managed to get neither the landowner’s name nor his number, meaning we had no way to contact him about potentially moving the horses in the pasture we selected. When we deploy in farmlands, animals tripping or eating our cables is always a concern. If a cable is eaten or disconnected, our recording is cut short which is not ideal given the time and effort we put into deployments. Luckily these horses did not seem like the type to have a palette for wires.
I found two semi-ripe mangos (very exciting), pet some horses, and also saw some bats in a creepy well. This was a quick and easy deployment located only a mile at most from the beach.
Samer said we could not go to the beach. We then headed to our last task of recovering a site, which exhibited the same battery issue we saw at the first recovery of the day, and then make the drive home for some much-needed dinner.
February 25th progress update:
Yellow marker: currently recording. Green marker: recovered stations. The yellow house is our hotel in Santa Cruz.