[Description of the seismological network of the Venezuelan Andes].

Abstract

Western Venezuela shows a broad zone characterized by a moderate seismicity level, which has been the scenery of various historic earthquakes of destructive character. The beginning of the seismic instrumentation in the area dates from 1969, nevertheless it was 10 years later when the seismological network of the Venezuelan Andes (REDSAV) was permanently installed in order to characterize the regional earthquake activity. The REDSAV is an array of 10 remote seismic stations that sends the seismic signals by analog telemetry to the central station, located in the city of Mérida, where the digitalization, automatic event detection in real time and the analysis and off-line processing of the seismic information is carried out. During the last 10 years important advances have been taken place in terms of its operativity, which includes a dynamic web site (http://lgula.ciens.ula.ve) with a catalog of western Venezuela earthquakes, where the user can visualize the seismograms, the P and S wave arrival time, the polarities and epicentral maps; moreover, it is possible to select events applying temporal, spatial and magnitute criteria. In this paper the technical characteristic of the equipment are described and the advances registered in the last years referring to the automatic acquisition system, processing of the information and seismologic catalog of the REDSAV, whose systematic use during a decade has permitted to gather the biggest information base of related with the seismicity of the south-western Venezuela.