The AFOK seismic station located southwest of Anatahan’s main crater has not been sending a signal since an eruption in Nov. 2007, according to EMO seismic supervisor, Juan T. Camacho.
Besides AFOK, the three other seismic stations on Anatahan are ANNA-East, ANNA-2 and ANNAT which is now buried in volcanic ash.
Camacho said the AFOK station, due to its proximity to Saipan, is supposed to be the key station on Anatahan.
But since it was covered by ash, the equipment has yet to send data to its receiver at the EMO office on Capital Hill.
Each seismic station on Anatahan has its own receiver at the EMO office.
The AFOK’s receiver, Camacho said, is in good shape but is useless unless the station on Anatagan is fixed.
Unfortunately, he added, there is no budget for the repair which Camacho said will cost $2,000.
Traveling to Anatahan will cost $3,000, he added.
But he said EMO has enough spare parts and tools to fix the station.
He added that they may “hitch a ride” to Anatahan with a Japanese group that installed its own broadband monitoring equipment there.
Camacho said they have already communicated with the Japanese group.
The proposed fiscal year 2009 budget will give EMO a total of $681,716 of which $62,022 goes to utilities, $6,817 to non-personnel and $612,877 to personnel.
