Seminar
Underground seeing: characterization of geological hazard at the astronomical observatories of the Canaries, Chile and Hawaii

Abstract

An analysis of the impact of seismic and volcanic activity was carried out at selected astronomical sites, namely the observatories of El Teide (Tenerife, Canary Islands), Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Canary Islands), Mauna Kea (Hawaii) and Paranal (Chile) and the candidate site of Cerro Ventarrones/Armazones (Chile). In this sense, we studied the impact of seismicity, volcanic ash clouds, lava flows and ground deformation. Hazard associated with volcanic activity is low or negligible at all sites, whereas seismic hazard is very high in Chile and Hawaii. The lowest geological hazard in both seismic and volcanic activity was found at Roque de los Muchachos observatory, in the island of La Palma.