Ebre Observatory

The Ebre Observatory (OE) is a Research Institute located in Roquetes (Baix Ebre). It was founded in 1904 by the Company of Jesus to study the relationships of the Sun-Earth system (now known as Solar-Terrestrial Physics).

The first seismic station in Catalonia, still active (EBR), was installed there in 1904. The instruments have been updated as technology has been progressing, and nowadays it is still in operation thanks to the collaboration between the OE and the ICGC.

Since 1984, the Geological Service of Catalonia (SGC), currently the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC), operates the seismic network of Catalonia and has been contributing to the improvement of the operation of seismic stations of the OE .

Over the years the OE has accumulated a large amount of analog seismograms recorded on paper, and other materials of interest for seismology. It is of common interest for both institutions to preserve and disseminate this heritage and for this reason actions have been launched to put these records in digital support.

At the moment, the entire series of the recordings on thermal paper of the EROQ station in the OE is already available. This station was installed in 1987 by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) as part of the "National Seismic Network". Several collaborations of the OE and the SGC allowed its subsequent improvement.