Regional seismic networks upgrade encouraged

Abstract

A partnership between the U.S. National Seismic Network (USNSN)—planned by the U.S. Geological Survey for implementation in the early 1990s—and a group of modernized, independently run regional seismic networks is recommended by the National Research Council in their recent report, “Assessing the Nation's Earthquakes: The Health and Future of Regional Seismograph Networks.” The panel that prepared the report said that together, the facilities would constitute a National Seismic System, a satellite‐based network capable of systematically monitoring and analyzing earthquakes throughout the nation within minutes of their occurrence.Regional seismic networks are arrays of tens to hundreds of seismic stations targeted chiefly on seismically active regions. They provide a broad range of data and information, which can be applied to public safety and emergency management, quantification of hazard and risk assessment associated with natural and human‐induced earthquakes, surveillance of underground nuclear explosions, basic research on earthquake mechanics and dynamics, seismic wave propagation, seismotectonic processes, earthquake forecasting and prediction, and properties and composition of the crust and the internal structure of the Earth.