IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology[1]) was a university research consortium dedicated to exploring the Earth's interior through the collection and distribution of seismographic data. IRIS programs contributed to scholarly research, education, earthquake hazard mitigation, and the verification of a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Support for IRIS came from the National Science Foundation, other federal agencies, universities, and private foundations. IRIS supported five major components:
IRIS maintained a Corporate Office in Washington, D.C.
IRIS's Education and Public Outreach Program offered animations, videos, lessons, software, posters, and fact sheets to help teachers and the general public learn more about seismology and earth science and understand it better. The goal is to get more people interested in careers in geophysics.
In 1959, the United States Government launched a research effort aimed at improving national capabilities to detect and identify foreign nuclear explosions detonated underground and at high altitudes. The resultant World-Wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN) was a program successful beyond its original remit. It provided seismological data for its intended purpose as well as for the emerging concept of plate tectonics. Initially operated by the Defense Department, by 1973 operations were transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A collaboration with the IRIS Consortium began in 1984 as a result of a need to expand and succeed the WWSSN with the Global Seismographic Network (GSN). The GSN, originally funded entirely by the USGS under the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), is now jointly supported by the National Science Foundation.
Smith, S., IRIS – A University Consortium for Seismology, Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, Vol. 25, p. 1203, 1986.
van der Vink GE (1998). "The role of seismologists in debates over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 866 (1): 84–113. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1998.tb09148.x.
Aster, R., Beaudoin, B., Hole, J., Fouch, M., Fowler, J., James, D., and the PASSCAL Staff and Standing Committee, IRIS PASSCAL program marks 20 years of scientific discovery, EOS trans. AGU, 86, 26 April 2005.
