Quarterly Report to the Harry Reid Center

UCCSN-DOE Cooperative Agreement

Task 12: Seismic Monitoring

PI: James N. Brune

UNR Seismological Laboratory

June 2000

 

 

Progress:

 

During this reporting period (Mar-Jun 2000), we have maintained seismic operations under the procedures which have been transitioned from the M&O to HRC.

 

We have installed strong-motion sensors at ten planned sites.  Because these sites were already permanent stations, the data from these instruments comes into the lab via telemetry.

 

We have installed equipment at one previous analog instrument station to upgrade it to a digital telemetry station.

 

A new software program for receiving the raw data from the permanent network of digital stations was installed.  This replaces a 5-year-old program and greatly enhances the reliability of data collection.

 

We have finished a draft of a report on the FY98-99 seismicity in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain.  This major report covers the past two years in detail, plus a reexamination of data for previous years for tectonic implications.

 

Recordings from portable instruments on Little Skull Mountain have yielded a large dataset of very small earthquakes from which kappa and kappa variability can be assessed for relatively closely spaced stations on a common geologic interface.

 

 

Problems:

 

The backlog of event location in the year 2000 is still approximately 30 days.  This represents some reduction from the previous quarterly report, however.

 

The audit performed on Task 12 in the final week of April resulted in one Deficiency Report.  We have already drafted a response and should be able to close this deficiency in a straightforward manner.

 

 

 

 

Plans:

 

Permit application for one additional permanent seismic station is still pending with the BLM.  We will install digital seismic equipment at this site when the permit is obtained.

 

We plan to work off the backlog of seismic event processing during the next quarter.

 

The draft of the FY98-99 seismicity report will be formally reviewed and revised in the next quarter, and submittal of the data discussed in the report will be done.

 

We will complete the revision of the IP’s that control our seismic monitoring work with the network.  This revision will accommodate our transition to the Antelope recording system and consequent changes of procedure.