Heiti verkefnis : 

Upgrade and expansion of the Icelandic Strong Motion Network (IceSMN)

Verkefnastjóri : 

Simon Olafsson

Stutt lýsing á verkefninu:

The IceSMN has played a crucial role in seismic hazard assessment in Iceland. Most of advancement in engineering seismology relies on records of ground motion from past earthquakes. Due to uncertainties in seismic source, path, and site parameters, theoretical modelling is difficult and often impossible. Therefore, for a seismically active country like Iceland, a proper strong ground motion measurement network is essential and useful in many areas of science, engineering, and industrial applications. Reliability of empirical ground motion models depends on the resolution in space, time, and size of earthquakes recorded. A dense and well distributed strong motion network is necessary for reliable seismic hazard and risk analysis. Most of the stations of the current IceSMN are old accelerometers. The quality of data recorded by them as well as their reliability is not optimal. Ground motion modelling in Iceland has suffered from lack of data close to earthquake sources. There is an urgent need to upgrade the old accelerometers and to add new stations in the network. The EERC started a major upgrade in 2018, with a plan of expanding the network from 34 to 60 stations. With support from various sources, new accelerometers required for the project have been purchased.  Since the network lacks dedicated funds from the state or other organization, implementation of the project in terms of work need for renewal and installation must rely to competitive grants. This proposal seeks part of the funds required to carry out this work. A more robust, reliable, and denser IceSMN will help to collect data at different locations (distances) from the source of a future earthquake. This expands the database of available strong motion records in Iceland and will therefore enable researchers to calibrate ground motion models based on local data. This will lead to better hazard models, which will translate to better constrained design provisions for engineering constructions in Iceland.

Tilgangur og markmið:

The objective of the proposed project is to update and expand the IceSMN. The purpose for updating the network is to make it more reliable so that strong shaking data from future events, which are rare, are not missed. The purpose for expanding the network is to improve its spatial resolution and collect more data from areas close to the seismic sources that difficulties being encountered in ground motion modelling and seismic hazard assessment can be overcome.