Earthquake Monitoring Center

Earthquake monitoring Center (EMC) is a national Omani research center located in Sultan Qaboos University. It was established in 2001 to record earthquakes locally, regionally and internationally. The EMC receives real time data from remote seismic stations to analyze the data, locate the event and store the parameters in the Oman Seismological Network database. The recorded data represents the core for conducting advanced research and studies on the seismicity and geophysics. One main objective of EMC is to establish hazard location maps that can be used by planners and engineers for construction and design to lower the risk of earthquake damages. “


Publications: 

The Arabian Plate is surrounded by regions of relatively high seismicity. Accounting for this seismicity is of great importance for seismic hazard and risk assessments, seismic zoning, and land use. In this study, a homogenous earthquake catalogue of moment-magnitude (Mw) for the Arabian Plate is provided. The comprehensive and homogenous earthquake catalogue provided in the current study spatially involves the entire Arabian Peninsula and neighboring areas, covering all earthquake sources that can generate substantial hazard for the Arabian Plate mainland. The catalogue extends in time from 19 to 2015 with a total number of 13,156 events, of which 497 are historical events. Four polygons covering the entire Arabian Plate were delineated and different data sources including special studies, local, regional and international catalogues were used to prepare the earthquake catalogue. Moment magnitudes (Mw) that provided by original sources were given the highest magnitude type priority and introduced to the catalogues with their references. Earthquakes with magnitude differ from Mw were converted into this scale applying empirical relationships derived in the current or in previous studies. The four polygons catalogues were included in two comprehensive earthquake catalogues constituting the historical and instrumental periods. Duplicate events were identified and discarded from the current catalogue. The present earthquake catalogue was declustered in order to contain only independent events and investigated for the completeness with time of different magnitude spans.  

 

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The seismic monitoring center at Sultan Qaboos University is one of the oldest research centers established at the university, which was started in the mid-1990s. The Center is considered one of the most important research centers and the only specialist in the Sultanate to monitor and research earthquakes. The Center monitors and monitors earthquakes that occur inside and outside the Sultanate, and report them and disseminate their data to the competent authorities Since its inception, the center has undergone several developmental stages. It has 20 monitoring stations distributed across different regions throughout the Sultanate, which were established in three stages and equipped with the latest monitoring, numbering and communication devices. The seismic information is transmitted 24 hours a day to the Seismic Monitoring Center at Sultan Qaboos University The staff of the scientific center includes a communications engineer, three geologists and a geophysicist, in addition to the director of the center, assisted by two administrators. The Center carries out the following national services Identification of seismic sites and measuring their strength in the different regions of the Sultanate and the preparation of seismic distribution maps in the Sultanate and the neighboring areas - Publication of the annual earthquakes bulletin in addition to the simplified manuals to explain earthquakes and their effects and how to deal with them - Spreading the culture and awareness of seismologists through the print, audio and visual media by conducting television and radio interviews and publishing articles in local and international newspapers and magazines - Provide consultations in the field of selecting the most suitable sites for the establishment of vital installations - Providing seismic risk assessment for specific sites -Participation in teaching in the Department of Earth Sciences in addition to training geophysics students on the equipment and research available at the Center - In addition to a number of scientific, local and international activities and we hope to develop the center to become one of the world centers of excellence in the field of earthquakes and seismic research in the next five-year plan.

The center is concerned with the following:

The implementation of a national seismic monitoring program that includes the installation of permanent seismic monitoring stations in selected locations in the Sultanate according to their geology and tectonic so that these stations are able to record all the earthquakes that occur inside the Sultanate or outside the Sultanate with a magnitude one or more  degree on Richter scale .Follow-up and development of the national seismic monitoring network and modification of their stations according to new research finding and  analysis of Seismic recording.

EMC is part of Sultan Qaboos University and it is one of ten research centers. The most work done in EMC  monitoring lab. It is a facility that provides equipment in which seismology , researchers can analyze earthquake  , and performed experiment. It has a set of receivers and network routers that receive data from seismic stations inside Oman and some other Gulf Cooperation Council. In addition to that earthquake monitoring center receive seismic data from  global seismic stations. It provide a group of workstation computers  that used for  gathering earthquake  seismic data ,  analyze earthquake automatically and manually. We use antelope software and seiscomp3. This software provide robust way to analyze earthquake data. The center has a class and meeting room . The center can provide  educational lectures, workshops and host conferences.

Publications:

The Arabian Plate is surrounded by regions of relatively high seismicity. Accounting for this seismicity is of great importance for seismic hazard and risk assessments, seismic zoning, and land use. In this study, a homogenous earthquake catalogue of moment-magnitude (Mw) for the Arabian Plate is provided. The comprehensive and homogenous earthquake catalogue provided in the current study spatially involves the entire Arabian Peninsula and neighboring areas, covering all earthquake sources that can generate substantial hazard for the Arabian Plate mainland. The catalogue extends in time from 19 to 2015 with a total number of 13,156 events, of which 497 are historical events. Four polygons covering the entire Arabian Plate were delineated and different data sources including special studies, local, regional and international catalogues were used to prepare the earthquake catalogue. Moment magnitudes (Mw) that provided by original sources were given the highest magnitude type priority and introduced to the catalogues with their references. Earthquakes with magnitude differ from Mw were converted into this scale applying empirical relationships derived in the current or in previous studies. The four polygons catalogues were included in two comprehensive earthquake catalogues constituting the historical and instrumental periods. Duplicate events were identified and discarded from the current catalogue. The present earthquake catalogue was declustered in order to contain only independent events and investigated for the completeness with time of different magnitude spans.

  • Arabian Catalogue
  • Focal Mechanism
  • Catalogue Declustring 2015
  • Final Historical Arabian
           

Publication Title

1 Seismic microzonation for Muscat region, Sultanate of Oman
2 Quarry blasts assessment and their environmentalimpacts on the nearby oil pipelines, southeast ofHelwan City, Egypt
3 Site-specific shear wave velocity investigation for geotechnical engineering applications using seismic refraction and 2D multi-channel analysis of surface waves
4 Estimating the near-surface site response to mitigate earthquake disasters at the October 6th city, Egypt, using HVSR and seismic techniques
5 Efficiency of horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) in defining the fundamental frequency in Muscat Region, Sultanate of Oman: a comparative study
6 Subsurface investigation on Quarter 27 of May 15th city, Cairo, Egypt using electrical resistivity tomography and shallow seismic refraction techniques
7 Delineation of a paleo-channel utilizing integrated geophysical techniques at the port of duqm area, sultanate of oman
8 Deterministic seismic hazard assessment close to a gas field in northern Oman
9 Effects of surface geology on the ground-motion at New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, Northern Egypt
10 Evaluation of seismic hazard at the northwestern part of Egypt
11 Near-surface site characterization at Quriyat City, Sultanate of Oman using HVSR and MASW techniques
12 Probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment along Oman coast from submarine earthquakes in the Makran subduction zone
13 Geophysical investigation in the Northwestern part of the Gulf of Suez, Egypt
14 Compiling an earthquake catalogue for the Arabian Plate, Western Asia
15 Tsunami hazard assessment along Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates coasts
16 Site-specific earthquake ground motion parameters at the southeastern part of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
17 Seismic Liquefaction Potential in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
18 Developing a seismic source model for the Arabian Plate
19 Probabilistic and deterministic estimates of near‐feld tsunami hazards in northeast Oman
20 Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment for the Arabian Peninsula
21 Shear Wave Velocity Characteristics in Parts of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman – A Measure of Earthquake Hazard Assessment
22 Integrated ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography and multichannel analysis of surface waves for detecting near-surface caverns at Duqm area, Sultanate of Oman
23 Deaggregation of probabilistic seismic hazard for selected cities in the Arabian Peninsula
24 Updating a probabilistic seismic hazard model for Sultanate of Oman
25 Probability of magnitude detection for the seismological network of Oman
26 Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates
27 Site-specific seismic hazard levels at the economic zone of Duqm, Oman
28 Characterization of Seismic Source Zones in the Gulf of Aden Region

 

1- Add six new broadband seismic stations:
Broadband seismic stations are fundamental in earthquake monitoring and conducting seismological research.They provide valuable data for earthquake early warning systems and seismic hazard assessments.Increasing the number of stations will enable better seismic coverage and monitoring in that region and more precise location determination.


2- Add 100 strong-motion station:

Strong-motion stations are essential for monitoring earthquakes, emergency response planning, and implementing engineering measures to mitigate the impact of seismic waves on infrastructure. They provide valuable information to seismic studies and help improve the ability to design structures that help resist seismic forces.


 

Tel/Fax: (+968) 2441 3135

P.O.Box 50 Al-Khod, P.C.123

SQU, Sultanate of Oman

E-mail: emc@squ.edu.om

twitter: @emcsquoman

Bulletins
2017

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2015

2015

2014

2014

2012

2012