The BCSF-Rénass

The Bureau central et sismologique français - Réseau national de surveillance sismique (BCSF-Rénass) is a component of the National Observation Action (ANO) “Seismology” of the National Observation Service (SNO) “Solid Earth”, labelled by the CNRS-INSU

The BCSF-Rénass, located in Strasbourg and managed by the Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST), is in charge of:

• monitoring seismic activity in mainland France and in border areas,
• discriminating between natural and anthropogenic seismicity (of human origin or induced by man: mining activities, explosions, demining, exploitation of the subsoil, notably geothermal energy production, etc.), determining and disseminating the parameters of the seismic sources (location of the hypocenter, time of origin, magnitudes, etc.)
• collecting macroseismic data, evaluating intensities, and producing shakemaps,
• centralizing, archiving and disseminating seismological data for research purposes in Earth Sciences (newsletters and catalogs),
• transmitting the source parameters to international seismological centers (European-Mediterranean Seismological Center - EMSC, International Seismological Center - ISC),
• informing the public and the media of the observations made.

Content of the site

This web site, managed by the BCSF-Rénass, disseminates the source parameters of seismic events (location of the hypocenter, time of origin, magnitudes, etc) as well as additional information.

The seismic events disseminated by this site are those that occurred :

• in or near mainland France, analyzed by the BCSF-Rénass,
• in or near the French West Indies and Reunion Island, analyzed by the IPGP and its observatories (Guadeloupe - OVSG, Martinique - OVSM, Reunion Island - OVPF),
• in or near Mayotte, analyzed by the Révosima,
• at the global level for major events (automatic localization performed by the BCSF-Rénass, not validated by a seismologist).

Tools are available to search for information: a search form (by date or location for example) and a webservice for seismologists.

This site also allows any person who would have felt an earthquake in France (mainland France, French West Indies, Mayotte and Reunion Island) to participate in the analysis of the event by providing his or her testimony via the online form.