Mikhnevo: from seismic station no. 1 to a modern geophysical observatory

The Mikhnevo seismic station was founded in accordance with directive no. 1134 RS of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union of February 6, 1954. The station, installed south of Moscow, began its operations on monitoring nuclear tests in the United States and England in 1954. For dozens of years this station was the leading experimental base for elaborating new technical solutions and methods for monitoring nuclear explosions, equipped with modern seismological instruments. At present, the focus of activities has been moved from military applications to fundamental geophysical research. The station preserves its leading position in seismological observations due to the development of national high-performance digital instruments and creation of the small-aperture seismic array, the only one in the central part of European Russia, which is capable of recording weak seismic events with M_L ≥ 1.5 within a distance of 100 km.