Monitoring Networks

ANSS Map

In support of the USGS mission to predict and monitor hazardous events in near-real time, the USGS installs, operates, and maintains seismic stations in the US and around the world. Data from these stations are critical to the USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) for the detection, location and characterization of earthquakes around the world. Most stations transmit data in near-real-time, thereby contributing to USGS rapid earthquake information products such as the Earthquake Notification Service (ENS), Web pages, ShakeMaps, and PAGER earthquake impact estimates. Outside of the USGS, these data play a major role in the operations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Tsunami Warning Centers and in the operations of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), in their respective nuclear test treaty monitoring missions.

USGS National Seismic Networks

Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS)
The ANSS is a USGS initiative to upgrade and expand seismic monitoring capabilities in the United States. Major elements of the ANSS include national, regional, urban and structural monitoring systems. The ANSS “backbone” is a critical component of the national system with the goal of a uniformly distributed network of high-quality broadband stations. ANSS will eventually be a nationwide network of at least 7000 shaking measurement systems, both on the ground and in buildings that will make it possible to provide emergency response personnel with real-time earthquake information, provide engineers with information about building and site response, and provide scientists with high-quality data to understand earthquake processes and solid earth structure and dynamics.
National Strong Motion Program (NSMP)
NSMP has the primary Federal responsibility for recording each damaging earthquake in the United States on the ground and in man-made structures in densely urbanized areas to improve public earthquake safety. The program maintains a national cooperative instrumentation network, a national data center, and a supporting strong-motion data analyses and research center in support of this responsibility.

Global Seismographic Network (GSN)
The Global Seismographic Network is a permanent digital network of state-of-the-art seismological and geophysical sensors connected by a telecommunications network, serving as a multi-use scientific facility and societal resource for monitoring, research, and education. Formed in partnership among the USGS, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), the GSN provides near-uniform, worldwide monitoring of the Earth, with over 150 modern seismic stations distributed globally. GSN stations are operated by the USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory, the IDA group at UC San Diego, and other affiliate organizations.