The Antarctic Seismographic Argentinean-Italian Network: technical development and scientific research from 1992 to 2009

For several decades a variety of geophysical surveys have been carried out in the Scotia Sea, but earthquake seismology began to be widely employed only during the 1990s when some instruments were installed in the area following the activation of a temporary broadband seismographic station (ESPZ) by a team of Italian and Argentinean researchers, of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) and of the Instituto Ant�rtico Argentino (IAA) respectively, at the Antarctic Argentinean permanent base, Base Esperanza. At the beginning of 1995 ESPZ became the first permanent observatory of the Antarctic Seismographic Argentinean-Italian Network (ASAIN). In this paper, we describe the chronological and technical evolution of the ASAIN, that is financially supported by the Italian Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) and by the Argentinean Direcci�n Nacional del Ant�rtico (DNA) and that consists today of five stations installed in Antarctica (ESPZ, JUBA, ORCD, SMAI, BELA) and two in the Argentinean Tierra del Fuego (DSPA, TRVA). The SMAI and BELA stations, both located beyond the Antarctic Polar Circle, were activated between February 2007 and January 2009 as a PNRA/OGS � DNA/IAA contribution to Antarctic Seismology during the International Polar Year. A resume of the scientific results obtained using ASAIN data is also included.