Advanced National Seismic System

Logo of the ANSS

The Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) is a collaboration of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and regional, state, and academic partners that collects and analyzes data on significant earthquakes to provide near real-time (generally within 10 to 30 minutes[1]) information to emergency responders and officials, the news media, and the public.[2] Such information is used to anticipate the likely severity and extent of damage, and to guide decisions on the responses needed.[3]

Data is collected by eleven regional seismic networks and the National Seismic Network ("ANSS backbone") of dedicated stations, with additional inputs from overseas seismic networks. Analysis is done at the regional data centers, and at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC),[4] with the results posted at the USGS earthquake web page (https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/).

The National Strong Motion Project of the ANSS has instrumented 168 structures to record their response to very strong shaking. This data is used in research on earthquake-resistant engineering.[5]

  1. ^ USGS Circular 1429 2017, p. 19; Leith 2006, p. 12. It has been reported that in one case a television station was able to show millions of viewers a ShakeMap for an earthquake that had occurred only six minutes earlier (Wald et al. 2002, p. 13).
  2. ^ USGS Circular 1429 2017, pp. 1–2; SSA 2017.
  3. ^ USGS Circular 1429 2017, pp. 2, 22.
  4. ^ USGS Circular 1429 2017, pp. 6, 18, 29.
  5. ^ USGS Circular 1429 2017, p. 8.