WA Array phase 1 - southwest

The first phase of WA Array started in November 2022 with the deployment of 128 new passive seismic stations in the southwest of Western Australia. In addition to these, 16 stations from the South West Australia passive seismic Network (SWAN) were serviced and absorbed into the array. The Geological Survey of Western Australia assisted with the installation of the 11 stations from the national AusArray network that are located within the Southwest region and which also fit into the WA Array network. The remaining places in the network are covered by existing stations from the Seismometers in Schools network (three stations) and from the Australian National Seismograph Network (six stations) bringing the final count of stations in phase 1 of WA Array to 161.

The passive seismic stations include instruments from Reftek, Nanometrics, Guralp, Sonic Audio and GaiaCode, all of which are either 60 s or 120 s broadband. There is also a range of models including Reftek Wranglers and 130s, ESS Geckos, Earthdata LPR2000 and Terrasawrs, Nanometrics Taurus and Guralp Minimus. Care will be taken to ensure that the data quality from all stations is equivalent.

All stations are recording continuously at 100 samples per second and will remain in the ground for one year until December 2023.