Seismology

The Seismological Observatory at Fürstenfeldbruck (GOF) is a key facility for seismic monitoring and research. As a member of the German Regional Seismic Network (GRSN) and headquarters of the Bavarian Earthquake Service, it operates a network of over 30 stations tracking local and global activity. Beyond monitoring, GOF is a world leader in rotational seismology, hosting the unique ROMY ring laser. This tetrahedral instrument measures ground rotation and Earth's spin variations with unprecedented sensitivity, bridging the gap between operational earthquake services and cutting-edge geophysical science.

The earthquake monitoring station

The Munich Earth Observatory's earthquake monitoring station, with its stations in Fürstenfeldbruck (FUR) and Wettzell (WET), is part of the German Regional Seismic Network (GRSN) for observing global earthquake activity and monitors earthquake epicenters in Bavaria with 21 other stations in the Bavarian network.
The earthquake monitoring station at the Geophysical Observatory in Fürstenfeldbruck (GOF), with its seismic stations in Fürstenfeldbruck (FUR) and Wettzell (WET) as well as other broadband stations, contributes directly to the monitoring of global earthquake activity and is therefore also part of the German Regional Seismic Network (GRSN). In addition to this federal scientific task, the GOF also manages the data and analysis center of the Bavarian Earthquake Service, which operates a network of more than 30 digital seismic stations in cooperation with the Bavarian State Office for the Environment. The aim of this initiative is to provide the public with comprehensive information about relevant seismic activity in Bavaria and neighboring areas (http://www.erdbeben-in-bayern.de). All recorded waveforms (seismograms), as well as the determined earthquake parameters and station data, are provided by the GOF via the subnode of the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA) initiative (http://erde.geophysik.uni-muenchen.de/fdsnws).

In addition to research projects on the use of seismic wavefield gradients, the scientific work of the earthquake monitoring station at the GOF focuses on the investigation of swarm earthquakes in the Vogtland and Bad Reichenhall regions, as well as the analysis of seismic signals of volcanic origin. Furthermore, the GOF plays a key role in the seismic monitoring of deep geothermal energy in the greater Munich area and in southeastern Bavaria.

RoMY

Rotational Motions - A new observable for Seismology

Since 2016, the GOF has also housed a large ring laser that enables high-resolution studies of seismic wave propagation and variations in the Earth's rotation: ROMY. This instrument, designed as a perfect tetrahedron with side lengths of approximately 12 m and four components, promises significantly higher sensitivity than the world's most stable ring laser, G0 (Wettzell), which consists of a horizontally positioned ring. While the latter is designed as a nearly perfect monolith, ROMY in its final stage of development represents a so-called virtual monument.

Andreas Brotzer, Heiner Igel, Eléonore Stutzmann, Jean‐Paul Montagner, Felix Bernauer, Joachim Wassermann, Rudolf Widmer‐Schnidrig, Chin‐Jen Lin, Sergey Kiselev, Frank Vernon, Karl Ulrich Schreiber; Characterizing the Background Noise Level of Rotational Ground Motions on Earth. Seismological Research Letters 2023;; 95 (3): 1858–1869. doi: https://doi.org/10.1785/0220230202