The IGN MEMS Accelerographs Record the First Accelerograms in Different Locations in the Lorca City

Abstract

A recent earthquake (13 December 2018, Mag. 3.5) has allowed the recording 11 accelerograms from a network microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) low-cost accelerograph Silex. The National Geographic Institute of Spain (IGN) has built this kind of equipment and has installed in the Lorca City. The epicenter of the earthquake is only approximately 6 km from Lorca. This is important because an earthquake hit this city on 11th May, 2011. This earthquake caused nine deaths, more than 400 injured people and a loss estimated about $1 billion. We have also got records from two commercial accelerograhs GeoSig GMSPlus and GeoSig GSR-18 in two different stations in Lorca and we have been able to compare these signals with signals from Silex. We have studied carefully the records from places where peak accelerations are noticeably higher than in other locations. We have seen that the waveforms of these records have different features and we think that the effect sites are very important. Finally we have also compared the peak acceleration with macroseismic intensity obtained from questionnaries. We have checked there is no clear correlation between instrumental acceleration and macroseismic intensity at least for earthquake with small magnitudes.