Several media have turned the spotlight to what continues to be a project of major importance and prestige for GeoSIG: The NetQuakes project of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), for which GeoSIG developed and supplies the instruments. The Radio Station KPCC from Southern California in cooperation with the National Public Radio network has broadcast a programme with the title “Volunteers moved to help in earthquake study”. For NPR News, KPCC reporter Alex Cohen interviews Geophysicist Douglas D. Given from the USGS, who outlines the functioning of this seismic system, and visits homeowner Chuck McDaniels in Arcadia, California who is hosting a NetQuakes recorder. “Until you go to the garage, you wouldn’t know that Chuck Mc Daniels’ home is part of an innovative seismic system.”, comments reporter Alex Cohen on the idea of hightechnology scientific equipment being installed in random Californian suburbs. The respective homeowner describes the instrument: “It’s blue and it’s bolted to the floor of my garage, about the size of a loaf of bread I would say.” Its simple design catches the eye of reporter Alex Cohen: “This box is called a NetQuakes seismograph and it looks low-tech (…) but it’s actually swiss-made and equipped with powerful sensors.” Douglas Given explains how the system works: “Each NetQuakes instrument sends its seismological readings back to the USGS over the internet. As earthquakes occur, each one is a moment in time where we can learn a lot about how the earth works and how we can protect people from earthquakes, so we don’t want to miss those opportunities as they occur.” The full report can be found here:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=fals | The Mexican Newspaper El Heraldo published an article on 5th May called “Swiss scientists visit the accelerometer network of Mexicali”, relating to the recent visit of GeoSIG personnel to the Strong Motion network in Mexicali, operated by CICESE (Scientific and Educational Superior Investigation Centre of Ensenada in the state of Baja California, Mexico). The network has been established since 2009 and its functionality has been tested and confirmed by GeoSIG specialists. The network of GeoSIG instruments in Baja California consists of 30 stations: 12 in the Mexicali valley, 11 in the Mexicali urban area, several others perform strong-motion monitoring of the dams of El Carrizo, Tijuana and in La Rumorosa. The GeoSIG engineers visited the CICESE systems to verify the correct installation and functioning of the stations, and to support and train the respective personnel. The GMS instruments of the Mexicali networks send their recorded data (trigger-based), similarly to the USGS’ NetQuakes network, through the internet to the servers at CICESE in Ensenada. Furthermore, the article refers to the “mother”-network of USGS in the state of California, where approximately 500 instruments are installed, forming a dense monitoring system for the urban areas. Future plans involve the integration of the two networks in order to allow for the exchange of data and information from both sides of the border, as well as the continuous expansion of the Mexican network to further cover five major cities in the state of Baja California. The related article can be found here:
http://www.oem.com.mx/elheraldodetabasco/notas/n2066516.htm |