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FARB - Farallon Islands, CA, USA

Site of FARB vault

Site of FARB vault

1997/03/15 00:00:00 - Present

Latitude: 37.6978
Longitude: -123.0011
Elevation: -18.50 meters

Aerial photograph of island

Aerial photograph of island

Location | Geology | Vault Conditions
Instrumentation | Network | Operation Notes
Noise Characteristics | Data Availability

Location:
Site is located on the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, offshore of San Francisco, and is under the auspices of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This is a particularly tricky site for maintenance, since access to the Island is limited. This site experiences loss of power from time to time, due to problems with the island generator. Despite the 15 batteries, there are periods of time when the station is down due to loss of power. This site also experiences occasional problems due to corrosion of cables.

Geology:
Granite

Vault/Borehole conditions:
The sensors are installed in a near-surface vault and covered with rocks and foam in order to provide thermal stability.

Instrumentation:
SensorDataloggerStart DateEnd DateSEED ChannelsLocation
Battery VoltageQ41202001/06/01PresentLE?,UE?
FBA VoltageQ41202001/06/012004/08/19LF?,UF?
Guralp CMG-3 Broad Band SeismometerQ41202001/03/122004/08/19BH?,HH?,LH?,VH?
Guralp CMG-3 Broad Band SeismometerQ41202001/06/012004/08/19UM?
Guralp CMG-40T Triaxial SeismometerQ41201997/03/152001/03/12HH?,LH?,VH?,UH?,BH?
Internal TemperatureQ41202004/08/19PresentUK?
Kinemetrics FBA ES-T Accel. (2 g max 10 v/g)Q41202004/08/19PresentHL?,LL?,BL?
Kinemetrics FBA-23 Accel. (2 g max 1.25 v/g)Q41201997/03/152004/08/19LL?,BL?,HL?
Motorola MPX201 PressureQ41201997/03/15PresentLD?
Solar InsolationQ41202001/06/012004/08/19UE?,LE?
Streckeisen STS-2 VBB Tri-Axial SeismometerQ41202004/08/19PresentLH?,HH?,UM?,BH?,VH?,UH?
YSI 44031 ThermistorQ41201997/03/15PresentLK?

The FARB site also is home to a continuously operating GPS receiver as part of the BARD network.

Network:
BK (Berkeley Digital Seismic Network)

Operation Notes: (may not be current)
This section summarizes major changes in equipment or in instrumentation at FARB.

  • 06/15/2004: Sampling rate of BH channels changed from 20 Hz to 40 Hz.
  • 07/01/2003: HH channels modified to have casual filters.
  • 03/13/2001: Broadband sensor replaced due to increase in baseline noise level.
  • 04/07/2000: Replaced GPS clock
  • 03/06/2000: Modified MSHEAR configuration
  • 12/16/1999: Q4120 software upgraded to MSHEAR
  • 09/21/1998: Replaced baraometric sensor to solved problems dating from 04/18/1998.
  • 03/14/1998: Installed 4 GB disk on Q4120
  • 03/15/1997: Seismic instrumentation installed: Quanterra Q4120 Datalogger, Guralp CMG-40T seismometer, Kinemetrics FBA-23 accelerometer. Vanguard 300 FRAD used for frame relay.
  • 01/27/1994: BARD GPS monument and Ashtech receiver installed.

Noise Characteristics:
The figures below are cumulative plots of power spectral density (psd) determined from the broadband channels. In each figure, the vertical component psd is plotted with blue diamonds, the north component psd with red squares, and the east component psd with green circles. The results are presented in the 5 different frequency bands, and the USGS/Albuquerque low noise model is plotted as a dashed line in each. The PSD units are in dB (decibel) relative to 1 (m/s**2)**2/Hz. The current annual plot is updated weekly.

Cumulative PSD results
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
1999 PSD 2000 PSD 2001 PSD 2002 PSD 2003 PSD 2004 PSD 2005 PSD

Data Availability:
BDSN waveforms and associated metadata are available at the Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC).

Several tools provide access to SEED format data at the NCEDC, both in terms of querying the archives and allowing data requests.

Help on using these tools is available.

BDSN Overview | Map | Table



Berkeley Seismological Lab
215 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720-4760
www@seismo.berkeley.edu

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Last modified: Wed Jun 25 13:34:08 PDT 2008