Historical review

Seismic station "Lviv" is one of the first opened in Europe in the nineteenth century. The station was established at the Astronomical Observatory of Lviv Polytechnic University by Professor V. Lascaux. The station began operation on June 5, 1899. There were two horizontal seismographs Bosch-Omori with period T = 30 s and amplification V = 10 installed at the station. Instruments have been designed to register strong earthquakes. In 1941, during the German occupation, the premises of Lviv Polytechnic was occupied for a military hospital and a seismic station ceased its operations.

In the 1948 Institute of Geophysics, USSR Academy of Sciences began the organization of seismic observation in Lviv and the outskirts of the city. For this purpose, the house on the street Yaroslavenka, 27 was rented and re-equipped as a seismic station. There were two horizontal Nikiforov's seismographs installed on the station. Pendular clock with a minute samples contactors was providing an accurate time. After a long break, 25 October 1949 Lviv seismic station has resumed regular registration of earthquakes. A year later Nikiforov devices were replaced by a set of Kirnos seismographs and pendulum clocks with the nautical chronometre. December 6, 1951 at the Lviv branch of USSR Academy of Sciences, delivered at the Institute USSR Academy of Sciences Geophysical seismic station "Lviv", was created Seismic sector. Further, seismic station belonged to different structural units of institutes of the Academy of Sciences. In November 1992 station moved to the newly created Laboratory of seismicity and seismic hazard in the Carpathian region of the Institute of Geophysics of NAS of Ukraine, from July 1995 and is ongoing in the department of seismicity of the Carpathian region of the same institute.

During the development of seismic monitoring network, the station was equipped with standard general type SKD (СКД) seismometer which enabled to extend the frequency range of recorded signals towards larger periods (about 20 sec). For a clear registration of surface waves in 1968, the station was established long-period seismic equipment (CD-1 seismometer and long-period galvanometer type SPG-4).

In 1998, in the Department of Carpathian Region's Seismicity it has been designed and manufactured the prototype of the automatic digital seismometer DAS, which was set up at the seismic station. A digital seismometer has its software for processing of seismic records. Automatic systems (DAS-05 CM3-KB) is designed for observation in solving regional seismological problems. For all the technical parameters it can safely register as weak, but distinguishable to people, seismic events, and the maximum movement in a wide frequency range (0,02-24 Hz).

The results in the form of newsletters and directories, through international exchange, transferred to specialized institutions of Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Over the past two years conducted close cooperation in exchange of urgent seismic information with the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC, France). Currently, the Regional Seismic Center operates on the basis of seismic station "Lviv". The main objective is the improvement and development of automated seismic observation network in the Carpathian region.