The ANTICS Large-N Seismic Deployment in Albania

Located within the active continental collision between Eurasia and the Adriatic microplate, Albania is an earthquake prone country with one of the highest seismic hazard in Europe. This came into evidence when the MW=6.4 Durrës earthquake hit the country in 2019, causing 51 fatalities and widespread damage to infrastructure. Despite this stark reminder, the seismotectonics of Albania remains poorly researched, holding many unknowns regarding active seismogenic faults and 3D velocity structure. In an attempt to fill-in this knowledge gap, we conceived the project ANTICS (AlbaniaN TectonIcs of Continental Subduction) to install a temporary network of 382 seismic stations and densely monitor the abundant seismic activity in central Albania. In this paper we introduce the project goals and seismic deployment, assessing data quality and extracting valuable lessons from such a complex large-N deployment. Finally, we present some preliminary results on the detected seismicity and a receiver function profile and expand on an outlook of the project and possible next steps in the area.