Significant technical advances in broadband seismic stations in the Lesser Antilles

摘要

In the last few years, French West Indies observatories from the Institut dePhysique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), in collaboration with The UWI SeismicResearch Centre (SRC, University of West Indies), have modernized the LesserAntilles Arc seismic and deformation monitoring network. 15 new, permanentstations have been installed that strengthen and expand its detectioncapabilities. The global network of the IPGP-SRC consortium is now composedof 20 modernized stations, all equipped with broadband seismometers, strongmotion sensors, Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors and satellitecommunication for real-time data transfer. To enhance the sensitivity andreduce ambient noise, special efforts were made to improve the design of theseismic vault and the original Stuttgart shielding of the broadbandseismometers (240 and 120s corner period). Tests were conducted for severalmonths, involving different types of countermeasures, to achieve the highestperformance level of the seismometers. GPS data, realtime and validatedseismic data (only broadband) are now available from the IPGP data centre ().This upgraded network feeds the Caribbean Tsunami Warning System supported byUNESCO and establishes a monitoring tool that produces high quality data forstudying subduction and volcanic processes in the Lesser Antilles arc.