Romania

Romanian Seismological Service

More information about this network

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

LocationCodeLatitudeLongitudeTimespanComponents
BacauBAC46.566926.912419432
BucharestBUC44.413626.096719023
Câmpulung-MuscelCMP45.268325.038319432
FocșaniFOC45.69527.183319422
IasiIAS47.193327.561719522
VrancioaiaVRI45.866526.727619522

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.

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5188jpeg400 
 tiff1000* 

*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  • historical references to the earthquakes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.

Download data

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