The Geophysical Institute is responsible for the operation of seismological stations Pruhonice (PRU), Kasperske Hory (KHC), Dobruska Polom (DPC), Novy Kostel (NKC), Panska Ves (PVCC), Upice (UPC) and Trest (TREC) which are part of the Czech Regional Seismological Network covering the territory of the Czech Republic, and of the local seismic network in Western Bohemia (WEBNET). Seismological Service carries out the detailed analysis of digital and analogue seismograms, location of local and regional seismic events, international data exchange and archiving of digital records. The Geophysical Institute publishes seismological bulletins, catalogs of regional seismic events, and collects and evaluates macroseismic reports about earthquakes felt on the territory of the Czech Republic.
The Czech Regional Seismological Network consists of the following permanent seismological stations: Pruhonice (PRU), Kasperske Hory (KHC), Dobruska/Polom (DPC), Novy Kostel (NKC), Praha (PRA), Ostrava-Krasne Pole (OKC), Vranov (VRAC), Moravsky Beroun (MORC), Moravsky Krumlov (KRUC) and Velka Javorina (JAVC). Stations PRU, KHC, DPC, PRA, OKC, VRAC and MORC are involved in the global seismological data exchange of some sort, i.e. they provide data on the regular basis to international seismological centres in the U.S.A., Great Britain, Russia, France and Germany. Station DPC is one of the European broad-band telemetered stations included into global Nearly Real Time Data System SPYDER run by Consortium I.R.I.S. (Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology). In co-operation with the Polish Academy of Sciences the Geophysical Institute has been operating VBB research seismological station Ksiaz (KSP) for almost 20 years.
Click here to get the map of the stations
Station Novy Kostel (NKC) has been monitoring the activity of the West Bohemian swarm region permanently since 1989. More than 500 local tectonic microearthquakes are recorded every year. The station is equipped with digital three- component short period and broadband instrumentation. NKC is part of local network WEBNET run by the Geophysical Institute and the Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics. To learn more about WEBNET activities, contact J.Horalek (jhr@ig.cas.cz)
There is a long tradition of a detailed interpretation of both analogue and digital seismograms at the Seismological Department of the Geophysical Institute. Seismogram readings are regularly transmitted twice a week via E-mail to World Data Centres in Golden (Colorado), Moscow and Strasbourg, as well as to other European observatories and national seismological centres. The analysis of earthquakes recorded by the Czech seismic stations is sent monthly to the International Seismological Centre (I.S.C.) in Newbury, Great Britain for location purposes and preparation of international bulletins of earthquakes. Preliminary estimates of the epicentres and magnitudes of more important regional earthquakes immediately made at IL serve to give early information about particular earthquakes. The importance of this task is emphasized by the growing interest in protection of nuclear power plants, dams and large industrial structures. Information on earthquakes is provided by request to governmental and other domestic institutions. The press is informed about prominent strong earthquakes of public interest.
Observations of seismological stations PRU, KHC, DPC, PRA, OKC and PRA are collected in bulletins and catalogues of earthquakes. Issued yearly, seismological bulletins contain final locations of the International Seismological Centre, and analysis of seismic events recorded by stations PRU and KHC. Traditionally, readings of seismic station Praha (PRA) run by Charles University, Prague are included into the bulletins. Publications are distributed to about 120 institutions and libraries worldwide. In turn, the Geophysical Institute obtains many bulletins and scientific journals free of charge.
Digital seismogram analysis is carried out by best available programs. Routine analysis of digital data is carried out on a PC by program Event (M.Musil). UNIX workstation programs SeismicHandler (K.Stammler), Xpitsa (F.Scherbaum, J.Johnson) and Snap (M.Baer) are used for a more detailed analysis of selected seismograms. Programs Preproc (M.Zmeskal, A.Plesinger) for preprocessing of digital seismograms, Unical (A.Plesinger) for calibrating seismograph systems and Zesmo (J.Zednik, J.Jansky, V.Cervený) for fast computation of ray synthetic seismograms in radially inhomogeneous Earth were developed at the GI.
Selected digital seismograms from stations PRU and KHC are sent by request to ORFEUS Data Centre in Utrecht. The records are included into CD-ROMs and distributed to the seismological community. The continuous very broad-band seismograms from station DPC recorded on QIC cartridges are processed at IL and sent to the I.R.I.S./U.S.G.S. Data Collection Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico to be eventually merged to the global seismic database at the I.R.I.S. Data Management Center in Seattle.
Available digital data on optical disks:
PRU: February 1991 - present (Lennartz system - ESSTF binary format)
KHC: January 1973 - March 1985 (FBV system - GSE, SEED)
October 1988 - May 1992 (Lennartz system - ESSTF binary format)
September 1995 - present (ESSTF binary format)
DPC: August 1992 - present (Quanterra system - MiniSEED Steim1/2)
NKC: January 1986 - present (SP network WEBNET, Lennartz system - ESSTF binary format)
Send requests for data to Jan Zednik - jzd@ig.cas.cz (jhr@ig.cas.cz for WEBNET data)
J.Zedník, Z.Janatková (Editors) 1992: Bulletin of the
Czechoslovak Seismological Stations Praha, Pruhonice and
Kasperske Hory 1988. Geophysical Institute, Prague,
pp.281.
F.Hampl, A.Bouskova, 1995: WEBNET 94 - Bulletin of local
events, IG ASCR, IRSM Prague, pp.63.
A.Plesinger, M.Zmeskal, J.Zednik, 1995: PREPROC - Program
for automated preprocessing of digital seismic data. GI
ASCR Prague, N.E.I.C. U.S.G.S. Golden, pp.130.
M.Musil, 1993: Interactive and semiautomatic data-analysis
procedures. Computers & Geosciences, 19, 141-147.
Seismic stations of the Czech Seismological Network are largely involved in the world data exchange of seimic reports of earthquake readings and digital seismograms.
The Geophysical Institute maintains close contacts with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado. Extensive digital data and software exchange is being carried out with the I.R.I.S. DMC in Seattle, U.S.A.; I.R.I.S./U.S.G.S. Data Collection Center in Albuquerque, U.S.A.; I.S.C. in Newbury, Great Britain; the ORFEUS Data Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands; Seismologisches ZentralObservatorium in Erlangen, Germany.
