The historical background

After the devastating earthquake on April 7, 1893 with the epicenter in the vicinity of Svilayinatz (Svilajinac) , the Geological Institute of the School of High Learning, on the initiative of academician Yovan Zsuyovitch (Jovan Zujovic) its Director and Svetolik Radovanovitch (Svetolik Radovanovic) its professor, started collecting data on earthquakes, which was actually the first step in the development of seismology in Serbia. This service was operational only a few years. In 1906 the Faculty of Philosophy of the Belgrade University decided to build a special building at Tashmaydan (Tasmajdan) for the Seismological Institute, which was the beginning of a systematic monitoring and data collecting on earthquakes on the territory of Serbia . During its over 90 years of work the Institute was frequently changing its status. Finally, the Law of the Republic of Serbia adopted in 1995 granted the Institute of Seismology a status of an autonomous organization performing tasks of interest for the Republic.
The first seismographers were installed in 1909 and already the following year , in June 1910, its instruments registered the fist earthquake. During the First World War the entire inventory of the Institute was destroyed and all its instruments broken, or damaged. After having repaired its instruments the Institute resumed work in 1921. In 1929 , on the ground of war damage, the Institute obtained the mechanical Vihert type instruments which were used as basic equipment for registering earthquakes until 1980. The purchase of transportable seismographer after the earthquake in Kopaonik was the first step in the modernization of our seismological service.
In the 1991-2005 period the Institute modernized its analogous seismological network by developing the system of digital automatic acquisition of seismic signals . The number of seismic station increased to*** and from ** of them transmission of data was secured by telephone to the central station in Belgrade .
After the earthquake at Mionitza (Mionica),in Divchibare (Divcibare) the second stationary seismological station in Serbia was installed, thanks to the Fund for Reconstruction of the Kolubara Region . The seismic equipment in this station is of high quality , located in a quite environment with almost no noise, so that the registered data in this station are most often used as data for the Balkans, within the virtual European seismological network.
The seismological network in Serbia consists of 18 seismological stations with different types of seismological equipment , as indicated on the Table. In 1918, in the central seismological station in Belgrade the Wichert and Mainka type seismographers were installed and till 1970 they were the only equipment for registering earthquakes in Serbia . In the Seismological Institute of the Republic of Serbia the DASA (Digital Automatic Seismological Acquisition ) SYSTEM was developed in the 1991-2005 period and it constitutes the basis of the seismological network.
Thanks to the Belgrade – Bratislava Project ( DIRECTE – no . NPOA | G10| 2004) funded by the Slovak government the Seismological Institute of the Republic of Serbia has modernized its capacities.
Within the DIRECTE PROJECT the system of acquisition and transmission of seismological data has been modernized and a center for data collecting ,exchange , processing , publishing and analyzing established.
Seven seismological stations have been equipped with new 24 (Microstep-MIS) digital computers and SeisComp | SeedLink 2.1 (GFZ Potsdam) acquisition programs for satellite data transmission from Divchibare (Divcibare ) and Svilaynatz (Svilajnac).
Real-time data collected by the seismological stations in Belgrade , Divchibare, Svilaynatz , Nish (Nis) and Frushka Gora (Fruska Gora) are processed in the seismological station in Belgrade together with data collected every hour from the seismological stations at the Iron Gate (Djerdap), Gruya, Syenitza (Sjenica) and Bayna Bashta (Bajna Basta).The central station in Belgrade exchanges real-time data with the seismological stations in the region. For automatic location and informing we use the AutoLoc package (GFZ Potsdam) and SeisGram2K (A. Lomax) for monitoring of acquisitions.
Seismological Survey of Serbia has modernized its network and achieved real-time data acquisition. The measured and collected data are processed in real-time mode providing fast information on seismic activity.