Romanian Seismological Service#
Geophysical research in Romania began at the end of the 19th century and grew through the initiative of dedicated researchers in the field of astronomy, geosciences, mathematics and physics. In 1901, the Romanian Seismological Service was established and 2 stations installed in Bucharest and Timisoara in 1902. The network grew to 6 stations by 1952 and 48 analogue stations by 1970. The digital era began in 1991 with analogue recordings phasing out by 2017. Nowadays, the Romanian Seismic Network has over 200 stations both in Romania and in neighboring countries, fully equipped with digital instruments.
The modern Romanian Seismic Network is run by National Institute of Earth Physics (NIEP).
Stations#
Location |
Code |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Timespan |
Components |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bacau |
BAC |
46.5669 |
26.9124 |
1943 |
2 |
Bucharest |
BUC |
44.4136 |
26.0967 |
1902 |
3 |
Câmpulung-Muscel |
CMP |
45.2683 |
25.0383 |
1943 |
2 |
Focșani |
FOC |
45.695 |
27.1833 |
1942 |
2 |
Iasi |
IAS |
47.1933 |
27.5617 |
1952 |
2 |
Vrancioaia |
VRI |
45.8665 |
26.7276 |
1952 |
2 |
Instrumentation#
2 component horizontal, Bosch
2 component horizontal, Mainka Demetrescu
2 component horizontal, Galitin
1 component vertical, Alfani
Recording Medium#
smoked paper
photo paper
ink
Data Availability#
The archives of the NIEP contain over 1 million paper seismograms.
The image database contains historical seismograms recorded by Romanian Seismic Stations between 1903 and 1957.
no. available |
format |
dpi |
color |
|---|---|---|---|
5188 |
jpeg |
400 |
|
tiff |
1000* |
*Select partial records with observable earthquake signals maybe available at higher resolution and/or have been vectorized using TESEO2 into SAC format.
The database is linked with the EuroSeismos Database.
The database (plans to) include(s):
seismic bulletins from 1937-1954
publications
historical references to the earthquakes
seismic instruments characterizations
More information about the archive can be found on their website.
Contact#
For more information about this collection, please contact: < blank >
References#
Adina, V., Popa, M., Ionescu, C., and Paulescu, D. (2021). Building up a Seismic Network in the Early Days of Seismology in Romania, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, 1, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.202149BGS56
Archive INFP. http://archive.infp.ro/. Last accessed 5 January 2022.
Dinescu, R., Popa, M., Paulescu, D., Chircea, A., Neagoe, C., Rau, A.V. and Oancea, V. (2021). Collecting and preserving historical seismic data in Romania, IAGA-IASPEI 2021, 21-27 August 2021, Hyderabad, India, 112.
Paulescu, D., Rogozea, M., Popa, M. et al. (2016). Digitized Database of Old Seismograms Recorder in Romania. Acta Geophys. 64, 963–977. https://doi.org/10.1515/acgeo-2016-0039
Photo Credits: Ștefan Jurcă, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic