DISC 3 Jakarta (6 March)

The Jakarta DISC was held Tuesday March 6 at the Le Meridien hotel, an excellent venue. The DISC was sponsored by the Indonesian geophysical society (HAGI). I am very appreciative to Mr. Yoshi of HAGI who arranged for two young geophysicists (Setyo and Naskar) to meet us at the airport and get us to the hotel. Attendance at the DISC was 30 with many of these students from various Indonesian universities. It has been 15 years since I was in Jakarta. Back in the 1990s I regularly taught short courses there for Pertamina, and we had several Indonesian students in the Geosciences Department at The University of Tulsa. One of the DISC attendees, Rusalida, had been my student way back then. It was great to catch up.

The DISC itself went well, although my chapter on vibroseis harmonics seemed a bit remote since all onshore seismic data in Indonesia uses an explosive source. Impossible to get vibes into the kind of jungle they shoot. Although it is easy to communicate in english for everyday conversation, teaching technical material means slowing down and still something gets lost. But as I point out to all audiences, my DISC course is a guide to the book, not the other way around. So these students and professionals will think about our discussions and perhaps follow-up through the book and associated bibliography.

We had most of a day after the DISC to see Jakarta, and Naskar was kind enough to take us around. We saw the national monument, a colonial museum, and lots of traffic. The scooters are amazing the way they dart in and out of traffic, weaving only inches from big vehicles.

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