Seismic Monitoring and Data Processing in Seismological Observatory in Skopje—Republic of Macedonia—Basis for a Complex Geophysical Monitoring

Abstract

Seismological Observatory in Skopje with telemetric network of digital seismological stations systematically monitors the seismic activity in the territory of Republic of Macedonia and the bordering areas and also records the regional and teleseismic earthquakes The seismicity in Republic of Macedonia is studied on the base of instrumental seismological and macroseismic data available at the Seismological Observatory of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje. The data cover a period of about 1500 years. The earthquakes occurred before 1957, which is the year of foundation of the observatory, are included with locations obtained mainly from the maps of isoseismals, while the earthquakes occurred after 1957 are included with instrumental locations. Independent tectonic data are also used in the analysis. Seismic activity in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia is due to the permanent different intensities of movements of the higher order tectonic units within the seismic zones. It is concluded that the weak earthquakes are very frequent, that the light to moderate earthquakes are relatively rare, while the strong earthquakes are rare. The predominant hypocentral depth is within the Earth crust.