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Regional Observatories

Our observatories are a key instrument for a comprehensive understanding of the system Earth. The combination of monitoring programmes and observatories allows for an observation of the processes shaping the Earth system from a local to a global scale. Our main focus is on identifying and analysing natural hazards and observing the impacts of global climate change. We are running two types of observatories. On the one hand those with an instrumental focus on only one type of signal but with a global coverage, on the other hand the regional Earth System Observatories.

The Earth System Observatories combine an instrumental time axis with geological long-term observations. They focus on coupled processes and many signals and are run by a cooperation of several GFZ sections. The form the backbone of our research activities and are optimally suited for a systemic study of coupled Earth processes and their impact on the human habitat.

Contact person: Marco Bohnhoff

Got 9 results.
CVO - Central European Volcanic Province Observatory

The primary scientific goal of the Central European Volcanic Province Observatory is to better understand and map the processes in transcrustal magma systems beneath distributed intraplate volcanic fields, and to assess their volcanic hazard and the…
Earth System Observatories (Regional Observatories)

Our observatories are a key instrument for a comprehensive understanding of the system Earth. The combination of monitoring programmes and observatories allows for an observation of the processes shaping the Earth system from a local to a global sca…
Focus sites: Etna and Southern Italy Volcanoes

Mt. Etna (Eastern Sicily), located in one of the most complex tectonic environments, is one of the most active and best monitored volcanoes around the world. It is characterized by multi-hazard activity that endangers the densely populated area. Act…
GCOCA - Global Change Observatory Central Asia

Central Asia is highly vulnerable to global warming and natural hazards. The region allows us to study not only changes and impact in the water cycle but also a broad range of other natural, often hazardous, phenomena. Central Asia is influenced by …
GONAF - Geophysical Observatory at The North Anatolian Fault

GONAF (Geophysical Observatory at the North Anatolian Fault) is a combined surface and downhole based observatory to measure tectonic deformation transients (seismic and aseismic) along the overdue Marmara segment of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (…
IPOC - Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile

IPOC is an international network of institutions and scientists organising and operating a distributed system of instruments and projects dedicated to the study of the subduction system, its role in landscape evolution, and associated geohazards at …
SMARTIES - Supercritical fluids and MAgma Reconnaissance for Transformative Iceland Energy Solutions

Recognizing that the exploration and harnessing of magmatic and geothermal reservoirs involves many disciplines, the mission of “SMARTIES” is to implement a long-term observatory facility together with episodic field experiments for defining, testin…
TERENO-NE - Northeastern German Lowland Observatory

The Northeastern German Lowland observatory (TERENO-Northeast) is part of the Helmholtz Association`s interdisciplinary, long-term research network of Terrestrial Environmental Observatories - TERENO representing typical landscapes in Central Europ…
TESO - Taroko Earth Surface Observatory

The observatory is a long-term monitoring site of Earth surface processes, solid, solute and gaseous matter fluxes and biogeochemical cycles and their drivers, straddling an active mountain landscape from orogen ridgepole to coastline. Set within a …