Networking Research Infrastructures for Earthquake Seismology in Europe

In the past decade, European countries have experienced a surge in funding, of the order of 100 million euro (€100 million), for new earthquake monitoring equipment and initiatives. Permanent and mobile seismograph and accelerometer networks on national, regional, and global levels are being modernized and are expanding at a significant pace. Currently, earthquakes in the European-Mediterranean region are recorded by more than 2500 short-period (SP) seismometers, 3000 accelerometers, and 800 broadband (BB) permanent seismic stations operated by more than 100 networks and observatories. An additional 400 BB and more than 1200 SP mobile stations are deployed by universities and research institutes in temporary experiments. This unprecedented and still-expanding recording capacity in Europe and its immediate surroundings opens up new research opportunities as well as new data-handling challenges. For example, maintaining optimum access to the data and integrating facilities with different types of data require a high level of networking and coordination.