Earthquake Seismology 2015/2016

The British Geological Survey (BGS) operates a network of seismometers throughout the UK in order to acquire seismic data on a long-term basis. The aims of the Seismic Monitoring and Information Service are to develop and maintain a national database of seismic activity in the UK for use in seismic hazard assessment, and to provide near-immediate responses to the occurrence, or reported occurrence, of significant events. The project is supported by a group of organisations under the chairmanship of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) with major financial input from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). In the 27th year of the project, one new broadband seismograph station was established, giving a total of 44 broadband stations. New strong motion instrumentation was also installed at an existing site. Real-time data from all stations are being transferred directly to Edinburgh for near real-time detection and location of seismic events as well as archival and storage of continuous data. Data latency is generally low, less than one minute most of the time, and there is a high level of completeness within our archive of continuous data. All significant events were reported rapidly to the Customer Group through seismic alerts sent by e-mail. The alerts were also published on the Internet (http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk). Eleven papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Two presentations were made at international conferences. Five BGS reports were prepared. We have continued to collaborate widely with academic partners across the UK and overseas on a number of research initiatives.