Upgraded Stations Enhance North’s Seismic Assessing Capabilities

The Northern Division’s seismic assessing capabilities have been enhanced with the recent upgrade works at two of its stations (Dogotuki and Taveuni).

Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources Permanent Secretary, Raijeli Taga, confirmed both stations were now fully operational and successfully transmitting real- time data to the National Seismic Observatory in Suva.

The upgrade works for both stations cost $100,629.80 each respectively.

Ms Taga said having two stations up and running again allowed the team at the observatory to analyse picked events for an accurate result.

After the upgrades, the central hub had been receiving sequences of local minor events recorded for the division.

She said since the upgrade of the Fiji Seismic Network (modern software and hardware) Dogotuki and Taveuni were able to pick local minor events that occur along and near the Northern Fiji Fracture Zone (NFFZ).

“This confirms that the NFFZ is active, but the current earthquake occurrence is spread out in the Northern region, occurring along Yadua through North North East of Vanua Levu and the Sausau Ridge towards the North,” Ms Taga said.

She also confirmed the completion of four other seismic station upgrades in Yasawa, Lakeba, Kadavu and Tailevu.

All are operating and sending real-time information back to their main observatory in Suva.

She added that there might be consideration in the future for additional seismic monitoring stations to be built, but, they would need to first monitor and evaluate how the existing stations perform over time before being able to make that call.

Feedback: sampras.anand@fijisun.com.fj