Inauguration of the first permanent seismological station in Palestine

From left to right: Prof. Christoph Kottmeier, DESERVE-Coordinator (KIT); Prof. Michael Weber (GFZ); Prof. Rami Hammdallah, President of the An Najah National University; Dr. Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of Palestine.

On 23 October 2012, the first permanent geophysical multi-parameter station of the DESERVE program in Palestine was inaugurated in the presence of the Prime Minister of Palestine, Dr. Salam Fayyad. The GFZ was represented by Professor Michael Weber, director of the department "Physics of the Earth" and Oliver Bens, Head of the Staff Scientific Executive Board of the GFZ.

DESERVE is a joint project of the Helmholtz Centers KIT, GFZ and UFZ and their partners from Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Based on the Helmholtz expertise in the disciplines "Earth", "Water" and "Atmosphere", the interdisciplinary and collaborative project located in the Dead Sea region, which is unique, not only from an environmental perspective. DESERVE addresses the three major challenges environmental risks, water availability and climate change in the form of long-term measurements of geophysical parameters, detailed studies of interacting processes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, as well as simulations for the prediction and prevention of geophysical risks.

A central part of DESERVE is to build a network of observatories around the Dead Sea, which has already begun in a DFG-funded project. On 21 and 23 October, the first stations were opened in Jordan and Palestine. The first station in Israel is under construction.

The data of the measuring instruments (broadband seismometers, accelerometers, GPS, magnetotellurics) are transmitted via satellite directly to the GFZ, where they are provided in real-time to the partners in the region and the international community.