Station Locations

Two of the stations are located as close as possible to the Vanuatu subduction zone, ie LIFNC and MARNC at Wahanam, Lifou, and La Roche, Mare, respectively. The Lifou Station has been operating since April 2010 and the Mare station is due to be set up in the first quarter of 2011.

On the southern mainland, YATNC is located at Yate and ONTNC in Noumea with the latter station operating since 2010. OUENC station on Ouen Island is scheduled for the first quarter of 2011, as is PINNC on the Isle of Pines.

KOUNC at Koumac has been up and running since March 2011.

Operating principle: a seismic station is made up of several sensors (in this case a broadband seismometer and accelerometer) connected to a digitiser. The latter converts analogue signals from the sensors into digital signals. It records them and constantly transmits them to IRD’s Noumea centre that processes all signals from all the stations simultaneously. Monitoring is, therefore, on-going for all the stations spread across New Caledonia.

Equipment

Agecodagis digitiser Kephren-BB	Broadband seismometer 120 PA Nanometrics Trillium	ES-T Episensor accelerometer