NERIES : European Broadband Ocean Bottom Seismometer network

Responsable :

Satish Singh

Participants :

Satish Singh et Wayne Crawford

NERIES (Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology): Monitoring and understanding the earthquake processes and mitigating their effects are global priorities, requiring a concerted, dedicated, and international approach. NERIES responds to the needs of the seismological research and surveillance communities as well as to concerns from society. Earthquakes are recorded in the larger European-Mediterranean region by over 100 seismic monitoring systems and observatories in 46 countries. NERIES will network these seismological infrastructures into a sustainable integrated pan-European cyber-infrastructure serving current and future needs of the scientific community and of society. NERIES will combine Networking, Transnational Access and Joint Research Activities to promote improved access to distributed databases, common protocols, standardized procedures and strategies for long-term archiving and distribution of seismological data develop a new generation of hazard and risk assessment tools designed to improve monitoring and understanding of the earthquake process; Invest in capacity building and technology transfer to ensure the access to modern technologies for infrastructures and the larger scientific community in the Euro-Med region; implement key joint research projects aimed at improving the service provided by existing infrastructures and the use of seismological data for scientific research; boost the capability of the research community to investigate earthquake processes and Earth' structure and dynamics, use e-Science technology to facilitate outreach to the public at large and educational institutions in particular; provide access to specialized, unique European seismological infrastructures; strengthen the role of European seismology in global seismic monitoring and hazard mitigation.

Southern Europe, mainly offshore, is one of the most seismically active regions in the Earth, but it is mainly monitored using land seismic networks, leaving a large observational gap in the Mediterranean Sea and NE Atlantic, which have been the sites of disastrous earthquakes and sources of tsunami (e.g., the 1755 Lisbon or the 1908 Messina Strait earthquakes). The extension of the capabilities of the existing land-based infrastructure (ORFEUS, IRIS) for a more efficient approach in seismic risk assessment and management is a long-term goal of the Euro-Med monitoring policy, and a goal of NERIES.

European Broadband Ocean Bottom network will foster a step toward the establishment of the "seafloor segment" of GMES, as the EC ESONET project clearly indicated, also through the deployment and long-term operation of Broad-Band Ocean Bottom Seismometers (BBOBS) on the seafloor in seismically hazardous areas in Southern Europe (NE Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea), in agreement with the "key-sites" focused within ESONET.

As a first step towards setting up long term seafloor seismological observatories, Three recently built, portable BBOBS, will be deployed, operated by key marine geophysics centres in Europe (IPGP, INGV and AWI), for three years at three ESONET "key-sites" in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean. These BBOBS, provided free of charge by the research centres, will be deployed and re-serviced once per year using small sea-going vessels and wherever possible ships of opportunity (participating in other cruises). The first BBOBS was deployed in November 2006, and two others will be deployed in the coming months. The data from these BBOBS will be freely available through ORFEUS.

Pour en savoir plus sur NERIES : http://neries.knmi.nl/