Real-time earthquake, tsunami and volcanic monitoring systems rely upon a complex network of infrastructure, instrumentation, communication and human capital. Given the importance for national and local responses to earthquake related activity, the monitoring centers are critical facilities that must aim to maintain continuity of operations throughout any number of crises including but not limited to: hurricane and storm activity, forest fires, pandemics, political unrest and earthquake sequences themselves. Recent crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic; earthquake sequences in Puerto Rico, California and Utah; and Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Caribbean have stress-tested many of the plans monitoring systems had in place, providing a unique opportunity to share lessons learned and improvements made to systems based on results of this stress testing.
SRL welcomes contributions to the focus section on aspects related to continuity of monitoring operations during crises. Topics may relate to any aspect of the monitoring system from physical infrastructure and instrumentation to human capital to maintaining effective communication with stakeholders and the public. Submissions may include lessons learned from specific crises, papers on hardening of infrastructure, papers on disaster communication, or research papers on continuity of operations during crisis.
Guest editors for the SRL Focus Section on Monitoring During Crisis are: Sergio Barrientos (Universidad de Chile), Elizabeth A. Vanacore (University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez) and Kristine Pankow (University of Utah)
Deadline for submission of manuscripts: 1 August 2020
Accepted articles will be published online ahead of print as soon as ready and later in the January 2021 print issue.
Address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors or SRL Editor-in-Chief Allison Bent at srleditor@seismosoc.org. Address questions about submissions to the SRL Editorial Office at srl@seismosoc.org.