Facilities

Facilities of the EUROSEISTEST include:
  • The permanent accelerometric network of 21 digital 3-component stations
  • A model structure of a 1-degree-of-freedom oscillator at the centre of the valley (EuroProteas)

Figure 1: Location of the EUROSEISTEST (left) and photo of the EuroProteas model (right).

Permanent Accelerometric Network:

 The EUROSEISTEST accelerometric network has been in operation since 1993, under the responsibility of the Research Unit of Soil Dynamics and Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering (SDGEE) of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the support of the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK). The network initiated as a N-S array of accelerometers, vertical to the long axis of the Mygdonia graben and two downhole arrays with subsurface instruments at the center of the valley and the northern edge of the basin. Initial stations installations involved mostly 12- and 16-bits accelerographs and data from this first era are of poor quality and lack absolute time. In the following years stations were gradually upgraded with modern recording instruments (mostly 18-bits) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). A major upgrade and extension of the network was achieved in 2003. All stations were equipped with GPS and the array has been enriched with accelerometric stations in the east-west direction.

At present, EUROSEISTEST network consists of 21 high-resolution, three-component accelerographs, fourteen of which are installed at the ground surface or within small structures and the remaining six in boreholes, at various depths. The network, in its present form, is shown in Figure 2.




Figure 2: Left: Geological map of the broader EUROSEISTEST area. The prevailing seismotectonic features are shown as straight lines. Right: The present form of the accelerometric network along NNW-SSE (red color), SW-NE (blue color) and along depth at the downhole arrays at TST and PRO (gray color).