CGS Seismic Stations

Early History

The Colorado School of Mines first acquired and installed a single three-component seismograph in the Cecil H. Green Observatory at Bergen Park, about 9 mi (14 km) southwest of Golden. That system was in continuous high-gain operation into the 1980s and was, during that time, the primary source of instrumental data on Colorado earthquakes.

The Bergen Park station, at the time designated “GOL” by the World-wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN), was able to locate Colorado earthquakes to within 10 mi (15 km) of their epicenter.

During a twenty-day period in July and August 1976, the CGS hired Micro Geophysics Corporation to install and operate a high-gain seismic array in the Elkhead Mountains to monitor microearthquake activity in that area. See Bulletin 43 – Earthquake Potential in Colorado: A Preliminary Evaluation for a more detailed history of these early activities.

Current activities

The CGS first acquired a number of permanent seismic stations that were spun off from the USArray program in 2010. Since then, we have continued to expand and maintain the network of seismometer stations distributed around the state to monitor local, regional, and even global seismic activity. Listed here, each of our current stations has a link to its real-time helicorder trace of the vertical ground motion component. A single line on the helicorder graph traces the ground motion for a 10-minute interval.

All the seismometer clocks are synchronized with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) NIST: UTC-6 hours is equivalent to Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and UTC-7 hours is equivalent to Mountain Standard Time (MST).

Station SPVA – Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley, CO :: Helicorder

SPVA was installed on the Colorado Mountain College – Spring Valley campus in the summer of 2022. This location is very important for statewide seismic coverage as there was a huge gap in stations within west-central Colorado. This station will improve detection and location of earthquakes near Crested Butte, Aspen, and Glenwood Springs. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station MCSU :: CSU Mountain Campus, CO :: Helicorder

This installation, finished in August of 2019, is a collaboration between CGS and Colorado State University (CSU) and was installed at the CSU Mountain Campus near Rocky Mountain National Park. The CGS has stations in some very beautiful locations but this is one of our favorites. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station T25A :: Trinidad, CO :: Helicorder

Located near Trinidad, Colorado, this station is used to monitor earthquakes in the Raton Basin along the Colorado/New Mexico border. This is one of the most seismically active areas of the state with a combination of both tectonic and induced earthquakes. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station CHIL :: CSU-CHILL Weather Radar Station, CO :: Helicorder

Installed in February of 2020 near Greeley, Colorado, CHIL re-occupies the location of a temporary station that was part of a multi-year induced seismicity study. The land belongs to CSU and is home to a giant Doppler radome. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station HAYD :: Hayden, CO :: Helicorder

Station HAYD was installed in August of 2018 near Hayden, Colorado, west of Steamboat Springs. It’s on a beautiful site well-situated to help locate earthquakes in that area as well as around Glenwood Springs. Photo credit: Martin Palkovic for the CGS.

Station Q24A :: Divide, CO :: Helicorder

Near Divide, Colorado, just west of Colorado Springs, this station is a favorite because it’s very quiet, meaning it’s good at picking up attenuated signals from far-away earthquakes. It also is remarkably reliable, with very few installation and equipment issues. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station S22A :: Creede, CO :: Helicorder

S22A is located near Creede, Colorado. It was recently very useful for pin-pointing small earthquake swarms near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station LAMA :: Lamar, CO :: Helicorder

Installed in November of 2018, this station is located in southeast Colorado near Lamar, hence the designation “LAMA”! Primarily installed as a part of wider CGS research on the Cheraw Fault, it is used to monitor any potential activity or motion on that tectonic feature. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.

Station N23A :: near Red Feather Lakes, CO :: Helicorder

N23A—near Red Feather Lakes in north-central Colorado, close to the border with Wyoming— was installed in 2008 but it lost its internet service and real-time archiving between 2018 to 2021. We were incredibly happy to bring the site back online with a new satellite internet system. This station is in a very remote location so there is not much cultural noise in the data. It does get very windy, though, which sometimes may show up as noise and which also sometimes affects the satellite dish connection. Photo credit: Kyren Bogolub for the CGS.