EUROPEAN-MEDITERRANEAN SEISMOLOGICAL CENTRE (EMSC)
The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC, http://www.emsc-csem.org) is a scientific non-profit international NGO created in 1975 to provide rapid earthquake information at the Euro-Med and global scales. It federates 84 institutes and observatories from 55 countries as members and is funded mainly through research projects. The EMSC offers a unique source of information for international authorities in order to meet society’s needs for protection and enhance scientific progress, improve general information, while providing a back-up information service to national seismological institutes. Its website is ranked among the top 35 000 most visited sites (source www.alexa.com). Earthquake information is sent via email, SMS, or fax, within 20-25 minutes of the earthquake occurrence. Over 9 000 users including civil protection agencies, rescue teams, and individual citizens have registered to use this free service. The EMSC also collects data from observatories and institutes to publish the Euro-Med seismology reference bulletin. It plays a key role in the integration of the scientific community, particularly through the development and participation in major IT and infrastructure projects (e.g. the EC projects NERIES, NERA) in collaboration with ORFEUS. It hosts the European seismological portal (www.seismicportal.eu) which provides a single access point for earthquake data and services ranging from broadband and accelerometric waveform data, to historical event data and tomographic maps.
In order to develop and explain the key role that individuals can play as witnesses to seismic events, the EMSC has lately developed social networking on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. The Centre uses those social media to interact with citizens, inform them about earthquakes, share important projects, collect information and ask for opinions. With 1150 followers on Twitter and 810 fans on Facebook after only 3 months, the EMSC develops durable links with the public. Finally, it has developed partnerships with the private sector to support this field, such as DigitalElement, the leader in IP location solutions. It has won the 2007 IRIS prize of the French Ministry of Environment on risk information and awareness for original research. EMSC will be leading WP11 in MARsite.
