THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST SEISMOGRAPH NETWORK - A MULTI-HAZARD DATA AND INFORMATION SYSTEM

The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network (PNSN) has expanded from its origins as a small, NSF funded research network in the early 1970s to a large (>200 stations), multi-hazard network covering much of the states of Washington and Oregon. In support of the goals of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) the PNSN is in the process of upgrading and modifying its equipment, software and procedures. Specifically the PNSN addresses the following eight direct applications of seismic monitoring covered by the ANSS:

1. Earthquake emergency response: Rapid notification of events larger than Magnitude 3 is provided via pager alerts, e-mail, FAXes, WEB-pages.

2. Warning of volcanic activity: Most of the Cascade volcanos have real-time seismic monitoring with event threshold detection and manual review.

3. Warning of Tsunamis: The PNSN as part of the CREST program provides waveform data and automatic location information to the NOAA tsunami warning centers.

4. Seismic hazard assessment: Summaries of earthquake catalogs, focal mechanisms and structure studies contribute to hazard evaluation studies.

5. Earthquake Engineering: The addition of over 60 strong motion instruments provide on-scale recording of large earthquakes such as for M=6.8 event of Feb. 28, 2001.

6. Scientific Research: All PNSN seismic waveform data are made available to all researchers through the IRIS Data Management Center.

7. Public Information: The PNSN maintains many WEB pages on all aspects of seismology, and responds to the press and public in many other ways.

8. Education: Besides the training of earth science students as part of the university the PNSN also provides K-12 tours, materials and resources.