Domenico Di Giacomo

Public Release of the ISC-GEM Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900-2009)

The International Seismological Centre–Global Earthquake Model (ISC–GEM) Global Instrumental Earthquake Catalogue (1900–2009) is the result of a special effort to substantially extend and improve currently existing global catalogs to serve the requirements of specific user groups who assess and model seismic hazard and risk. The data from the ISC–GEM Catalogue would be used worldwide yet will prove absolutely essential in those regions where a high seismicity level strongly correlates with a high population density (Fig.xa01).nnnnFigure 1. nEarthquakes from the ISC–GEM Catalogue in Central and South America. Lighter colors indicate shallow earthquakes and darker colors indicate deep earthquakes.nnnnThe Catalogue is also expected to have a multidisciplinary use in a wide range of studies such as global seismicity assessment, tectonics, as well as the rapid determination of seismic hazard. Because of the large volume of digitized seismic travel‐time and amplitude data generated during this project, we expect the Catalogue to be useful in studies of the inner structure of the Earth as well as in nuclear monitoring research.nnThis global catalog was also designed to serve as a reference to be used for calibration purposes by those compiling regional seismicity catalogs that contain events of much smaller magnitudes. This will guarantee that the catalogs prepared by other teams for different regions will contain comparable earthquake locations and magnitude parameters, especially in border areas.nnThe work on the Catalogue was funded by the GEM Foundation as part of the five Global Hazard Components and is a result of a 27‐month‐long project. This project was led by the ISC and performed by the team of international experts in accordance with the requirements of the Scientific Board of GEM and following recommendations of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior (IASPEI) observers. Further, eight IT, administrative, and technical staff …

Spectral Analysis of K-NET and KiK-net Data in Japan, Part II: On Attenuation Characteristics, Source Spectra, and Site Response of Borehole and Surface Stations

Abstract In this study we apply a nonparametric spectral inversion scheme to a data set of accelerograms recorded by the K-NET and KiK-net networks in Japan in order to derive attenuation characteristics, source spectra, and site response. For this purpose, we use a total of more than 67,000 S -wave records from 2178 earthquakes ( M JMA 2.7–8) obtained at 1555 stations at the Earth’s surface and more than 29,000 records from 1826 events recorded at 637 borehole stations at depths of 100 to 3000xa0m. Attenuation characteristics are investigated in five separate regions, showing that crustal Q depicts lower values in central compared to southern Japan, and a significant frequency dependence is observed in every region. The source spectra follow the ω 2 model with higher stress drops for subcrustal earthquakes as compared with crustal ones. While strong amplification effects dominate the site contributions for the surface sensors, those for the borehole sensors are characterized by smaller variability. Nevertheless, consistent with observations from deconvolution of borehole/surface recording pairs, downgoing wave effects are visible in the site contributions for many borehole stations. Finally, the site amplification functions obtained at the surface are compared with surface-to-borehole (S/B) and horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratios, showing that the S/B ratios generally provide better estimates of the horizontal amplification than the H/V ratios due to amplification of the vertical component of ground motion.

Earthquake scaling characteristics and the scale‐(in)dependence of seismic energy‐to‐moment ratio: Insights from KiK‐net data in Japan

[1]xa0We investigate earthquake source characteristics and scaling properties using the results of a spectral inversion of more than 29,000 accelerometric borehole recordings from 1,826 earthquakes (MJMA 2.7–8) throughout Japan. We find that the calculated source spectra can be well characterized by the omega-square model and show on average self-similar scaling over the entire magnitude range, with median stress drops of 1.1 and 9.2 MPa for crustal and subcrustal events, respectively. The seismic energy-to-moment ratio, as theoretically expected if the omega-square model is valid, shows a strong dependency on stress drop only, which, in conjunction with data selection practice in some studies to cope with limited recording bandwidth, can explain the often observed apparent scale-dependence. Our observations suggest that there is no significant deviation from similarity of the energy radiation in the investigated magnitude range and that the observed scatter is mainly related to the scatter in stress drop.

Rebuild of the Bulletin of the International Seismological Centre (ISC), part 1: 1964–1979

The data from the Bulletin of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) have always been and still remain in demand for a wide range of studies in Geosciences. The unique features of the Bulletin include long-term coverage (1904-present), the most comprehensive set of included seismic data from the majority of permanent seismic networks at any given time in the history of instrumental recording (currentlyxa0~xa0150) and homogeneity of the data and their representation. In order to preserve this homogeneity, the ISC has followed its own standard seismic event processing procedures that have not substantially changed until the early 2000s. Several considerable and necessary advancements in the ISC data collection and seismic event location procedures have created a need to rebuild the data for preceding years in line with the new procedures. Thus was set up a project to rebuild the ISC Bulletin for the period from the beginning of the ISC data till the end of data year 2010. The project is known as the Rebuild of the ISC Bulletin. From data month of January 2011, the ISC data have already been processed with the fully tested and established new procedures and do not require an alteration. It was inconceivable even to think about such a project for many tens of years, but great advances in computer power and increased support by the ISC Member-Institutions and Sponsors have given us a chance to perform this project. Having obtained a lot of experience on the way, we believe that within a few years the entire period of the ISC data will be reprocessed and extended for the entire period of instrumental seismological recordings from 1904 till present. The purpose of this article is to describe the work on reprocessing the ISC Bulletin data under the Rebuild project. We also announce the release of the rebuilt ISC Bulletin for the period 1964–1979 with all seismic events reprocessed and relocated in line with the modern ISC procedures,xa0~xa068,000 new events, 255 new stations,xa0~xa0815,000 new seismic phases, more robust and reliable mb and MS magnitude evaluations and the addition ofxa0~xa02700 new MS magnitudes.

A scheme to set preferred magnitudes in the ISC Bulletin

One of the main purposes of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) is to collect, integrate and reprocess seismic bulletins provided by agencies around the world in order to produce the ISC Bulletin. This is regarded as the most comprehensive bulletin of the Earth’s seismicity, and its production is based on a unique cooperation in the seismological community that allows the ISC to complement the work of seismological agencies operating at global and/or local-regional scale. In addition, by using the seismic wave measurements provided by reporting agencies, the ISC computes, where possible, its own event locations and magnitudes such as short-period body wave mb and surface wave MS. Therefore, the ISC Bulletin contains the results of the reporting agencies as well as the ISC own solutions. Among the most used seismic event parameters listed in seismological bulletins, the event magnitude is of particular importance for characterizing a seismic event. The selection of a magnitude value (or multiple ones) for various research purposes or practical applications is not always a straightforward task for users of the ISC Bulletin and related products since a multitude of magnitude types is currently computed by seismological agencies (sometimes using different standards for the same magnitude type). Here, we describe a scheme that we intend to implement in routine ISC operations to mark the preferred magnitudes in order to help ISC users in the selection of events with magnitudes of their interest.