Improving Cross-Border Seismic Research: The Central and Eastern Europe Earthquake Research Network (CE3RN)

The complex tectonic setup of eastern Europe—resulting in strong spatial variations of the local seismic hazard—caused relevant institutions of neighboring countries to form a research cooperation to ease seismological research cooperations across borders. Here,we briefly introduce the original and new Central and Eastern Europe Earthquake Research Network (CE3RN) parties, with a synthesis of the common results achieved so far and an indication of possible future developments. Since the formal establishment of CE3RN, several common projects have been initiated, such as the SeismoSAT Project for the seismic data center connection over satellite and the Historical and Recent Earthquakes in Italy and Austria Project, both funded by the European Union INTERREG Italy–Austria Program. The most recent 22 March 2020 earthquake near Zagreb, resulting in considerable damage in the capital of Croatia, demonstrated the importance of fast data exchange, thus facilitating reliable analysis of the earthquake. In addition, a recent breakdown of data lines in Austria demonstrated the usefulness of alternative data transmission via satellite.