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The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS; www.iris.edu) Consortium’s Portable Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL) Instrument Center is located in New Mexico Tech’s Research Park.

The Center is primarily supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Energy, and is operated by Tech professional staff in coordination with the Department of Earth & Environmental Science Geophysics Program and the Geophysical Research Center.

In association with researchers and students from around the world, Instrument Center staff engage in hardware/software development and training associated with earthquake, volcano, glaciological, and other seismological research, handle logistical support and fieldwork for Earth science experiments, and maintain the world’s largest academic pool of research seismological instrumentation. PASSCAL instruments are routinely employed in teaching and research projects with investigators from Tech’s Geophysics Program, as well as many other U.S. and international research institutions. A key component of the Instrument Center’s operation is to provide unique opportunities for New Mexico Tech and other students to learn about and contribute to the international seismological research community through employment, internships, and other opportunities.

The Instrument Center also hosts the Array Operations Facility for the seismological USArray component of EarthScope, an NSF Earth Science research project of unprecedented scope studying the geology and geophysics of the North American continent and the deep Earth.