FARB refurbishment

The Farallon Islands are located approximately 30 kilometers west of the Golden Gate, on the Pacific plate. The BSL has operated instrumentation on Southeast Farallon Island (FARB) since January of 1994. Broadband seismic instruments were initially deployed in March of 1997. The unique location of FARB makes it a valued BDSN station, although it is both difficult to access and subject to a highly corrosive environment.

As part of the BSL collaboration with USArray, the BSL decided to rebuild the FARB station, including datalogger, seismometers, radios, cables and power supplies. In early summer of 2004, the BSL gained permission from the US Department of Fish and Wildlife (USFW) for a site visit. The USFW arranged transportation to and from the Island for BSL engineers via US Coast Guard rescue boat and helicopter. In August of 2004, BSL engineers went to the island and successfully removed the old instrumentation and replaced it with new equipment. Testing was also performed for upgrade of the radio telemetry described below. Of particular note, the Guralp CMG-3T was replaced with an STS-2.