HR: 15:05h
AN: U53B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Multi-Hazards Geophysical Monitoring Through the Eastern Caribbean Islands arc: Strategy, Challenges and Future Development
AU: * Fournier, N
EM: nicofournier@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AU: Lynch, L
EM: llynch@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AU: Robertson, R
EM: richie_robertson@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AU: Latchman, J
EM: j_latchman@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AU: Mohais, R
EM: rmohais@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AU: Ramsingh, C
EM: chan_ramsingh@uwiseismic.com
AF: Seismic Research Unit, The University of the West Indies, Gordon Street, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
AB: The Seismic Research Unit (SRU), at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad, W.I., is responsible for monitoring and studying geological hazards in the English and Dutch speaking islands nestled along the ocean-ocean plate convergence zone in the Eastern Caribbean. The Unit operates a multi-hazards monitoring network that spans over 15 islands. Geophysical monitoring techniques include 11 broadband and 44 short period seismic stations, 4 accelerometers, 4 continuous GPS stations (cGPS) and over 50 ground-deformation benchmarks. This seismic network caters for general earthquake surveillance and study as well as for volcano early-warning. As part of the recent trust to improve tsunami surveillance capabilities in the Caribbean the unit has embarked on a program to upgrade a subset of the seismograph network. Near real-time satellite communications will be installed to improve the present network that is built around terrestrial Internet and telephone media. Additional strong motion accelerometers will also be operated alongside the broadband sensors at the upgraded stations to provide the necessary specifications for tsunami detection. Through real- time data exchanged with adjacent and global networks that are involved in the effort to establish a Tsunami Warning System for the Caribbean and adjacent regions, the Unit's capacity to monitor multiple hazard via the seismological method will be significantly improved. The geodetic monitoring program is a hybrid of near real-time data acquisition and static field surveys. It is principally geared towards volcano ground deformation monitoring. The main challenge while monitoring volcano ground deformation in small islands is the limited control on the reference station which are often located within the potential deformation field (versus been ideally outside any volcano related deformation field). As a result, SRU's strategy is to control reference stations in every island by long-baselines processing using region wide and CORS stations outside the Eastern Caribbean. Intra-islands volcano ground deformation networks are then processed independently per island/volcano by coupling high temporal resolution surveys with lower sampling rate local cGPS, which increases drastically the cost effectiveness and accuracy of the monitoring. The data generated by the combination of instrumentation will provide improved insights into the ongoing regional tectonic processes. Here we present SRU's strategy for integrating different spatial and temporal scales in multi-hazards geophysical monitoring, as well as real and potential challenges.
DE: 1299 General or miscellaneous (1709)
DE: 7294 Seismic instruments and networks (0935, 3025)
DE: 8419 Volcano monitoring (7280)
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly