The Anna-2 station located on the southwest portion of the main crater and the Afok station on the southwest were repaired by a group of Japanese seismologists from Jan. 20 to 21, according to Emergency Management Office seismic supervisor Juan T. Camacho.
The two volcano monitoring stations were down over the past few weeks, preventing EMO from knowing what was going on in the Northern Islands amid the continuous seismic activities there.
Anna-2’s battery drained causing the equipment to shut down on Jan. 7, while Afok was no long able to send signals after it was covered by ash during an eruption in Nov. 2007
Dr. Setsuya Nakada, Yuichi Morita, Takeshi Matsushima and Atsushi Watanabe of the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute went to Anatahan to retrieve data from the seismometers they installed there in June 2008.
For the past several years, Nakada and his colleagues have been working closely with Camacho who is also tasked to maintain the seismic stations on Anatahan and the other Northern Islands.
The transportation costs to the Northern Islands amounted to $3,000, money that EMO does not have, Camacho said.
The repair of two stations cost $2,000 but since EMO has spare parts and enough tools to fix them, the repair did not cost the agency money.
Camacho said Anna-2’s voltage control regulator was replaced with a new one, a battery was installed and a new solar panel was added.
The Japanese scientists, who received instructions from Camacho through radio, also fixed the Afok station. They reinforced its antennae and installed a new solar panel, he said.
Now that there are three seismic stations working on Anatahan, Camacho said they can again monitor the volcano.
