An innovative, mobile seismic array using Güralp sensors, developed at the Center for Embedded Network Sensing at UCLA, has now been shipped to Mexico for its first major project.
The UCLA Broadband Seismic Network consists of 50 CMG-3T sensors combined with digitizing and telemetry equipment. These have been augmented by 50 further CMG-3T instruments from Caltech to form the instrument base for the Middle America Subduction Experiment (MASE).
MASE, a collaborative project with the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, is the largest single deployment of 120 s response broadband sensors anywhere in the world. It will study slow earthquakes and seismic waves in this area, with particular reference to Mexico City which lies directly on top of the subduction zone. When installation is complete in January 2005, the network will cover a 500km long transect through central Mexico, with instruments linked by 802.11 radio links. MASE will operate until summer 2006, when the array will be dismantled and the sensors returned to the US for use in new projects.