The GEOFON Program

Following the long tradition in broadband seismology in Germany, the GedForschungsZentrum (GFZ) at Potsdam, an institution for interdisciplinary research in geosciences, founded in 1992 by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology, has started a program for the establishment of a network of globally distributed broadband seismic stations. The program, called GEOFON (GEOFOrschungsNetz), is dedicated to Emst von Rebeur-Paschwitz who recorded the first teleseismic seismogram, 1889 in Potsdam and proposed a global seismograph network and an earthquake reporting system. Our program will, after its completion, consist of three parts: a permanent network of about 30 stations, a portable broadband network and a comprehensive data archive. It is planned for two three-year periods (1993-1995 and 1996-1998). The funding for the first period has already been provided almost completely. An Advisory Board with members from German Universities and the GFZ guides the operation of GEOFON. The main task of the program is to serve the seismological community with high quality broadband data for all kinds, of scientific tasks. The research projects at the GFZ itself, to be carried out with GEOFON and other broadband data, are presently dealing mainly with lithospheric and upper and lower mantle 3D structure.