Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) Lab.

Prof. Sayed Shaban
 Head of ENSN Lab.

Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) Lab.

Recording, monitoring, and analyzing the natural and artificial seismic events are the main objectives of the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN). The main center of the ENSN is located at Helwan, Cairo, besides a group of seven regional seismic centers covering all parts of the Arab Republic of Egypt. These sub-centers provide expertise and advice to decision-makers in surrounding governorates and regions on the most appropriate sites for development projects and architectural designs in order to achieve comprehensive, integrated and sustainable development. The seismological acquisition and processing at ENSN is a fully automated network system dedicated to the digital acquisition and real-time processing of seismological data, as well as the rapid exchange of earthquake information.

Real-Time Earthquakes Monitoring System

The end of the nineteenth century was the end of historical recording in Egypt and the era of the instrumental recording of earthquake shaking had begun. Egypt installed the first seismic station at Helwan (about 25 km south of Cairo) in 1899. This station experienced many development processes. In 1964, Helwan station (HLW) has been selected as one of the American World Wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN). In 1975 National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG)   supplemented two seismographs in Aswan and Abu- Simbel south of Egypt in order to allow the detection and location of smaller unfelt earthquakes due to the importance of this region as it contains Aswan High Dam and Abu Simple Temple. On 14 November 1981 an earthquake with magnitude 5.6 occurred in Kalabsha region in Aswan (south of Egypt), As a result of this event, the NRIAG installed 13 telemetric short-period seismic stations as a local network around Kalabsha fault and Northern Lake Nasser for monitoring the seismic activity in that area after that most of these stations converted to broadband sensors.

The 12 October 1992 (Mb 5.8) earthquake caused a lot of damage (i.e. 561 deaths, injured 9832 and left damage of more than 35 million U$) and Egypt suffers a lot from these earthquakes therefore the Egyptian Government gave orders to the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) to install and operate the Egyptian National Seismological Network (ENSN) as well as the Strong-Motion Network (SMN). The Government paid attention to the construction of such networks to protect strategic buildings in Egypt(e.g. new cities, high dams )and monitoring local and regional earthquakes. There are 70 seismic stations distributed in the whole area of Egypt and in the near past, the ENSN involve one main center in Cairo ( at Helwan) and five sub-center at Burg El-Arab, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Aswan, and Kharga, in order to send the data from these sub-centers to the main center in Helwan but nowadays all data sent from the stations to the main center in Helwan directly by satellite. From 1997 to the present the earthquake data have been collected from the Egyptian National Seismological Network (ENSN).

1- Monitoring of quarry blasts in cement companies in Egypt.

2- Earthquakes recording and monitoring around Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant Site.

3- Detecting and Evaluation of surface Cracks at Wadi Hof caves.

4- Seismic Hazard Assessment for Ataqa PUMPED STORAGE POWER PLANT (Ataqa PSPP) Site.

5- Seismic Risk Assessment of Wind Turbine Towers in Zafarana Wind Farm Egypt project, STDF.

6- STDF project: Studying of the geotechnical parameters properties at Kharga in the New Valley.

7- seismic studying and Geodynamic movements.

8- Seismological studies and the degree of High Dam Stability Project.

9- Detection of the Egyptian National Seismological Network capability performance, and its contribution to the evaluation of the Seismic Hazard in and around Egypt.

• Study the seismicity of Egypt and identify the seismic sources for seismic risk reduction.
• Seismic hazard assessment, seismic zoning, and calculating the seismic safety factor for the important regions.
• Seismic stability studies for the strategic structures.
• Study the characteristics of the seismic waves and their effects on the soil layers and the structures.
• Study the soil geotechnical parameters and its capability for construction.
• Performing the seismological studies and site selection of the commercial and critical facilities (e.g Power planets, Dams, Man-made Lakes, Tunnels, Factories, Bridges, and Pipelines) and new citizen area.
• Monitoring the man-made explosions and studying their impacts on the surrounding buildings.
• Study the soil properties and its engineering parameters.
• Installing and deploying the strong motion networks in Egypt and some Arab countries.
• Monitoring and discrimination between the nuclear explosions and the natural earthquakes using the seismological stations operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).
• Identifying the active faults and their earthquake recurrence.
• Earthquakes Early Warning (EEW) system.
• Deep Learning in the field of seismology.

1- Monitoring of natural, artificial events and induced seismicity.

2- Preparing the seismological database for advanced research work.

3- Collaborative observational research with international seismological centers.

4- Establish one and three-dimensional velocity structure.

5- Seismic source physics and seismotectonics.

6- Simulation of earthquake ground motion.

7- Seismic Hazard assessment.

8- ENSN Produces earthquake hazard estimates for several projects in Egypt.