Cuba strengthens research and technical services in seismology

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Dec 14 (ACN) The National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS by its Spanish acronym), based in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, boosted during this 2023 the progress of research and technical scientific services, with the aim of contributing to the mitigation of seismic risk in Cuba.

In the Annual Assessment Assembly, held in this city, Oleary Gonzalez, director of the institution, expressed the execution of nine projects associated to the sectorial program "Development of Applied Seismological Research in the Republic of Cuba" and the obtaining of the Cuban Academy of Sciences Award for the study "New estimates of danger, vulnerability and seismic risk in the southeastern region of the country".

He highlighted the institutional collaboration with universities and research centers such as the PhD program with the Universidad Technologica de La Habana Jose Antonio Echeverria, endorsement as a teaching center of the University of Oriente, links with the Higher Institute of Mining and Metallurgy of Moa, in Holguin, and the integration to the Permanent Commission of the Code of Seismic Models in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Gonzalez praised the research carried out on the promotion of technologies for the sustainability of road structures in areas where earthquakes occur, seismic-resistant behavior of beam-column joints in reinforced concrete buildings to obtain resistance to earthquakes and comprehensive management to reduce vulnerabilities in the automotive road infrastructure of the region.

He considered relevant the advances in the computerization of CENAIS through the entity's website, with the implementation and programming of new applications and software to improve the quality of the records and with access to visualize the technological disposition of the network of stations in real time, the shaking map for Santiago de Cuba automatically and the determination of the seismic moment tensor and its database.

Enrique Arango, head of the National Seismological Service, told the Cuban News Agency that this year's seismic activity is normal in the southeastern region, without earthquake swarms, but with incidents in the northern localities of Camagüey and Las Tunas, an unusual situation that is being monitored.