Shri J.L Gautam, Scientist (E)

jl.gautam@imd.gov.in

+91 11 2462 2827

National Centre for Seismology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Lodi Road, New Delhi, India

https://seismo.gov.in/

National Center for Seismology (NCS) is the nodal agency of the Government of India for monitoring of earthquake activity in the country. NCS maintains a National Seismological Network of 115 stations each having state of the art equipment and spreading all across the country. NCS monitors earthquake activity all across the country through its 24x7 round the clock monitoring center. NCS also monitors earthquake swarms and aftershocks through deploying temporary observatories close to the affected region.

Apart from earthquake monitoring, NCS is also actively involved in the Seismic Hazard Microzonation and seismological research. The major activities currently being pursued by the NCS are:

1. Earthquake monitoring on 24X7 basis

2. Operation and maintenance of the National Seismological Network comprising of 115 Stations

3. Maintenance of the Seismological Data Centre and information services.

4. Seismic hazard microzonation related studies

5. Aftershock/earthquake swarm monitoring/survey

6. Understanding of earthquake processes

7. Public outreach

Monitoring Background:

The history of instrumental earthquake monitoring in India dates back to 1898, when the first seismological observatory of the country was established at Alipore (Calcutta) on 1 December, 1898 after the great Shillong plateau earthquake of 1897. The occurrence of devastating earthquakes such as the 1905 Kangra earthquake, 1934 Nepal-Bihar, Assam and many other strong earthquakes, necessitated the strengthening of the national seismological network progressively from a paltry 6 in 1940 to 8 in 1950, 15 in 1960 and 18 in 1970. The early 1960s marked a very important land mark in the history of seismic monitoring, when the WWSSN (World Wide Standardized Seismic Network) stations started functioning globally.

List of data files