2000 – Seismic Surveillance by SEQWater: A State-of-the-Art Digital Telemetered Seismograph Network in South East Queensland

Jack Rynn, John Pix, Garry Grant and Albert Hill

Ground motions resulting from seismic activity can cause significant damage to existing dams. For this reason, monitoring of seismic activity is an important component of a dam safety management program. Similarly, the long term gathering of data on regional seismic activity provides a sound platform for structural adequacy checks of components of existing dams under seismic loading, as well as for future dam design. In this context, the South East Queensland Water Corporation Ltd (SEQWater) and its predecessors have been monitoring earthquake activity in relation to the Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine Dams in South East Queensland since 1977. In 1998, SEQWater upgraded the seismic instrumentation with a digital telemetered seismic surveillance system (DTSSS) six-station network to replace the original analogue seven-station network. This state-of-the-art instrumentation was supplied and installed by Nanometrics Inc., Canada through an international tendering process. This paper presents an overview of the DTSSS, results to date and future planning for an integrated strong ground motion accelerograph network.