Results of locating the IASPEI GT(0-5) reference events using the standard ISC procedures

The International Seismological Centre (ISC) is charged with production of the definitive global bulletin of seismic events, based on the most comprehensive set of parametric data collected from all over the world. Almost every event in the bulletin retains the original hypocentral solutions reported to the ISC by contributing agencies. In addition, where possible, the ISC computes its own solution, which is intended to be the most accurate where the data from several networks are used. It is because of the requirement for consistency of the bulletin over the years that the procedures used at the centre to compute hypocentres have remained rather conservative despite considerable advances made in the field of earthquake location.The ISC has developed and put into operation a new data management system. As a result, it is now possible to review and subsequently introduce more up-to-date methods of locating seismic events into the operations. The ISC Governing Council called for a workshop dedicated to location procedures, which was held during the 2005 IASPEI General Assembly in Santiago, Chile.To compare the accuracy of different location algorithms, a list of 156 reference events (IWREF) was selected prior to the workshop. The list includes geographically well distributed earthquakes and explosions with positions known with an accuracy of up to 5 km. It covers the period of 1954-2001 and includes all station readings and hypocentral solutions of different agencies available for these events in the ISC bulletin. Although the original ISC solutions are included, these may be different from the solution obtainable now due to changes in the ISC procedures over the years. This paper presents the results of relocation of these events using standard ISC location procedures as of 2005. These new ISC locations and analysis of their shifts with respect to reference locations present a benchmark for further improvement.     

Using beamforming for the global network location

The aim of this study is the design and trial of a novel sparse network beamforming (NB) technique to improve earthquake location. For this purpose bulletin phase arrival time data were processed via the use of complex exponents form and then used in an optimization via grid-search to search for the maximum semblance in hypocenter space. The use of the robust semblance statistic, provides reliable location results. The NB location results for a set of test events were compared to standard iterative ISC location procedure “iscloc” and its prototype the Jeffreys maximum likelihood estimator. For this purpose a data-base of 139 reference ground-truth events was extracted from the catalog of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) (97 GT5 events, assumed earthquakes, and 42 GT0 nuclear tests). The tuned NB procedure has shown excellent location results for events with a “good” ISC location and demonstrated the large epicenter deviations have been decreased in “bad” cases. Further developments of the algorithm would include allowances for 3D earth structure and a priori site-specific information.     

Updating default depths in the ISC bulletin

The International Seismological Centre (ISC) publishes the definitive global bulletin of earthquake locations. In the ISC bulletin, we aim to obtain a free depth, but often this is not possible. Subsequently, the first option is to obtain a depth derived from depth phases. If depth phases are not available, we then use the reported depth from a reputable local agency. Finally, as a last resort, we set a default depth.In the past, common depths of 10, 33, or multiples of 50 km have been assigned. Assigning a more meaningful default depth, specific to a seismic region will increase the consistency of earthquake locations within the ISC bulletin and allow the ISC to publish better positions and magnitude estimates. It will also improve the association of reported secondary arrivals to corresponding seismic events.We aim to produce a global set of default depths, based on a typical depth for each area, from well-constrained events in the ISC bulletin or where depth could be constrained using a consistent set of depth phase arrivals provided by a number of different reporters.In certain areas, we must resort to using other assumptions. For these cases, we use a global crustal model (Crust2.0) to set default depths to half the thickness of the crust.     

论中国地震台网测得的面波震级

文中使用了一个新的量规函数σ₃₀₀（Δ）,它是基于面波传播理论,考虑了面波的几何扩散、非弹性吸收、频散衰减以及面波优势周期随震中距的变化导出的,取全球平均Q=300。在震中距Δ=20°-160°的范围内与IASPEI推荐的面波震级的量规函数σ_IASPEI（Δ）一致,又推广了σ_IASPEI（Δ）的震中距使用范围,从1.0°-179°,以及可使用的面波周期范围（7.5-30s）,因此它更适合我国由中周期宽频带SK仪组成的台网情况。若采用此量规函数σ₃₀₀（Δ）和进行方位角改正,则可使我国台网测出的M_s与国际地震中心（ISC）测出的一致,震级误差降到0.19级,此误差与苏联台网的误差一样。     

Slowness Corrections — One Way to Improve IDC Products

—?The first step to identify and locate a seismic event is the association of observed onsets with common seismic sources. This is especially important in the context of monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) at the International Data Center (IDC) being developed in Vienna, Austria. Well-defined slowness measurements are very useful for associating seismic phases to presumed seismic events.¶Shortly after installation of the first seismic arrays, systematic discrepancies between measured and theoretically predicted slowness values were observed, and therefore slowness measurements of seismic stations should be calibrated. The observed slownesses measured with small aperture arrays, some of which will be included in the International Monitoring System (IMS) now being implemented for verifying compliance with the CTBT, show large scatter and deviations from theoretically expected values. However, in this study a method is presented, by which mean slowness corrections can be derived, which show relatively stable patterns specific to each array.¶The correction of measured slowness values of these arrays clearly improved the single array location capabilities. Applying slowness corrections with seismic phases observed by ARCES, FINES, GERES, and NORES, and associated to seismic events in the bulletins of the prototype International Data Center (pIDC) in Arlington, VA, also clearly demonstrates the advantages of these corrections. For arrays with large slowness deviations that are due to the influence of a dipping layer, the corrections were modeled with a sine function depending on the measured azimuth. In addition, the measured values can be weighted with the corresponding uncertainties known from the process of deriving the mean corrections.     

The Precursory Significance of Cumulative Slip of Repeating Earthquake Sequences Prior to Moderately Strong Earthquakes— A Case Study of Four Remarkable Earthquake Sequences of HaichengXiuyan

The Haicheng-Xiuyan region is an earthquake-prone area in Liaoning Province where earthquake sequences frequently occur and is regarded as the regional seismic window. In this area we found many earthquake events with the highest waveform similarity in the records of the same station from some remarkable seismic sequences,namely repeating earthquake sequences. In principle,rupture areas of the repeating events overlap with each other and are most closely located. Therefore these events may reflect the seismic process near the earthquake fault. In this paper, we identified four remarkable earthquake sequences of Haicheng-Xiuyan by waveform cross-correlation. The result shows that the cumulative slip of repeating earthquakes is related to moderately strong earthquakes,among which the Xiuyan M_S5. 4 foreshock sequence has the strongest and most apparent pre-shock accelerating-like slip behavior.     

The Kirovskiy Explosion of September 29, 1996: Example of a CTB Event Notification for a Routine Mining Blast

—?On September 29, 1996, a routine mining blast of about 390 metric tons was detonated underground at the Kirovskiy mine in the central Kola Peninsula. The United States was notified two weeks in advance that the blast was to take place and was given the date, approximate time, location and total charge. The explosion was detected and located by the prototype International Data Center (pIDC) and published in the Reviewed Event Bulletin (REB). Detailed information about the blast, including the type and depth of mining operation, the underground charge configuration, and the blasting delay pattern, is reviewed and combined with a seismological analysis of the event. The seismic analysis points to a possible associated tectonic component to the blast, consisting of a small rock burst or induced tremor, spall, or some combination of these mechanisms, that may have enhanced the shear waves, produced large Rg waves at low frequency, and small Pn/Sn and Pn/Lg amplitude ratios at high frequency. While these discriminants might identify the event as an earthquake, the spectral/cepstral analysis of the event clearly shows the ripple-fire delays. This event provides important confidence-building measures for both location calibration, in the form of travel-time corrections for location of mine events in this region, and for improved understanding of seismic discriminants expected for large mine blasts that may have an associated induced tectonic component (e.g., spall, mine tremor or rock burst).     

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 m _b and surface wave M _S . 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.     

How Much Knowledge Has Been Obtained from an Earthquake?A Survey of Seismological Publications

We analyzed the International Seismoogical Center(ISC)catalogue of seismologil publicationsfrom 1980 to 1995 to investigate how much infonformation provided by an earithquake hes beenutilized to obtain a better undertanding of earthauakes and selsmic disaster.We sekect the ISCbulletin which has a wider coverage of seismological journals and languages than the ScientificCitation Index(SCI),so that there is less regional or language bias in the analysis.The earth-quakes in the catalogue span the period from 1975 to 1990.Papers which have direct relationwith an earthquake as defined by the ISC catalogue range from 1 to 10~2 in order of magni-tudes.The logarithm of the maximum number of papers on an earthquake is shown to be prop-ortional to the magnitude of the earthquake,which provides a possibility to define a“normali-zed impact strength”of an earthquake,so that earthquakes with different magnitudes can becompared with each other.Magnitude span of the earthquakes with a certain“impact strengthlevel”an     

Source process and tectonic implications of the Spanish deep-focus earthquake of March 29, 1954

The source process of the deep-focus Spanish earthquake of March 29, 1954 (m_b = 7.1, h = 630 km) has been studied by using seismograms recorded at teleseismic distances. Because of its unusual location, this earthquake is considered to be one of the most important earthquakes that merit detailed studies. Long-period body-wave records reveal that the earthquake is a complicated multiple event whose wave form is quite different from that of usual deep earthquakes. The total duration of P phases at teleseismic distances is as long as 40 s. This long duration may explain the considerable property damage in Granada and Malaga, Spain, which is rather rare for deep earthquakes. Using the azimuthal distribution of the differences between the arrival times of the first, the second and later P phases, the hypocenters of the later events are determined with respect to the first event. The focus of the second event is located on the vertical nodal plane of the first shock suggesting that this vertical plane is the fault plane. This fault plane which strikes in N2°E and dips 89.1°E defines a nearly vertical dip-slip fault, the block to the west moving downwards. The time interval and spatial separation between the first and the second events are 4.3 s and 19 km respectively, giving an apparent rupture velocity of 4.3 km/s which is about 74% of the S-wave velocity at the source. A third event occurred about 8.8 s after the first event and about 35.6 km from it. At least six to ten events can be identified during the whole sequence. The mechanism of some of the later events, however, seems to differ from the first two events. Synthetic seismograms are generated by superposition of a number of point sources and are matched with the observed signals to determine the seismic moment. The seismic moments of the later events are comparable to, or even larger than, that of the first. The total seismic moment is determined to be 7 · 10²⁷ dyn cm while the moments of the first and the second shocks are 2.1 · 10²⁶ dyn cm and 5.1 · 10²⁶ dyn cm, respectively. The earthquake may represent a series of fractures in a detached piece of the lithosphere which sank rapidly into the deep mantle preserving the heterogeneity of material property at shallow depths.     

强震远场前兆异常在地震预报中的应用

强震不仅有近场前兆异常，而且也有远场前兆异常，后者在地震预报中可以起到三个方面的作用：（１）远场前兆异常多在震前的短临阶段准同步地出现，为短临预报提供了较丰富的信息，有助于作出短临预报；（２）远场前兆异常一般具有双重或多重前兆的性质，它们是比较可靠的前兆异常，可为预报地震提供依据；（３）远场前兆异常显示明显的地区，是应力积累较高的地区，往往是后继地震发生地方，即指出了地震可能发生的地域。因此，对远     

Earthquakes in continental Antarctica

No earthquake had been definitely located in the interior of the Antarctic continent before that in Dronning Maud Land, which occurred on 1982 November 4, and was found by the “search” procedure of the International Seismological Centre. A further earthquake of similar magnitude (Mb 4.4) has now been located about 200 km inland from the coast of Wilkes Land, near 69°S, 123°E. The second event occurred on 1983 September 20, and was also found by the ISC search procedure, from readings at four Antarctic seismograph stations, and six farther afield. Reflected phases suggest that the focus of this earthquake is in the upper few kilometres of rock beneath the ice cap. Two later earthquakes occurred on 1984 May 19 about 400 km west of the event of 1983 September 20. They had magnitudes (Mb) of 5.0 and 4.6, and were large enough to be located by the US National Earthquake Information Service.     

Path Corrections for Source Discriminants: A Case Study at Two International Seismic Monitoring Stations

—?Improving the performance of short-period regional seismic discriminants by applying propagation corrections is explored using observations from two seismic monitoring stations in Asia. Frequency-dependent regional phase amplitude ratio measurements at stations NIL and ZAL for earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions were obtained from the prototype-International Data Center (pIDC) that has been established for developing monitoring capabilities of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The pIDC discriminant measurements have large scatter, much of which is attributed to wave propagation effects in the heterogeneous crustal waveguide. Linear regressions indicate that the phase ratios are correlated with topographic characteristics along the individual paths, providing an empirical means for correcting for path effects beyond conventional distance corrections. Kriging, a spatial multiple regression algorithm, also reveals coherent spatial patterns in the data indicative of regional path effects. Using available high-resolution topography data, correction of regional P/S ratios for the best models obtained from multivariate regressions systematically reduces the data variance relative to distance corrections alone, as has been observed for other data sets. The reduced scatter in the measurements increases the separation between earthquake and explosion populations in most cases, enhancing the regional discriminant performance. The path-corrected discriminants isolate explosions better for NIL than for ZAL, even though some of the explosion sources are located in a common source area. Kriging achieves comparable or superior variance reduction for the discriminant measures, without requiring knowledge of the path structure, although this may not result in improved discriminant performance. While always desirable, corrections for heterogeneous path effects may prove inadequate in some cases, notably when phase blockage occurs or when strong attenuation eliminates the diagnostic high-frequency energy.     

Calibration of the Tibetan Plateau Using Regional Seismic Waveforms

We use the recordings from 51 earthquakes produced by a PASSCAL deployment in Tibet to develop a two-layer crustal model for the region. Starting with their ISC locations, we iteratively fit the P-arrival times to relocate the earthquakes and estimate mantle and crustal seismic parameters. An average crustal P velocity of 6.2–6.3 km/s is obtained for a crustal thickness of 65 km while the P velocity of the uppermost mantle is 8.1 km/s. The upper layer of the model is further fine-tuned by obtaining the best synthetic SH waveform match to an observed waveform for a well-located event. Green's functions from this model are then used to estimate the source parameters for those events using a grid search procedure. Average event relocation relative to the ISC locations, excluding two poorly located earthquakes, is 16 km. All but one earthquake are determined by the waveform inversion to be at depths between 5 and 15 km. This is 15 km shallower, on average, than depths reported by the ISC. The shallow seismicity cut-off depth and low crustal velocities suggest high temperatures in the lower crust. Thrust faulting source mechanisms dominate at the margins of the plateau. Within the plateau, at locations with surface elevations less than 5 km, source mechanisms are a mixture of strike-slip and thrust. Most events occurring in the high plateau where elevations are above 5 km show normal faulting. This indicates that a large portion of the plateau is under EW extension.     

Did the M S7.0 Lushan earthquake dynamically trigger earthquakes in the Datong volcanic region (Shanxi Province)?

Immediately following the M _S7.0 Lushan earthquake on April 20, 2013, using high-pass and low-pass filtering on the digital seismic stations in the Shanxi Province, located about 870–1,452 km from the earthquake epicenter, we detected some earthquakes at a time corresponding to the first arrival of surface waves in high-pass filtering waveform. The earthquakes were especially noticed at stations in Youyu (YUY), Shanzizao (SZZ), Shanghuangzhuang (SHZ), and Zhenchuan (ZCH), which are located in a volcanic region in the Shanxi Province,but they were not listed in the Shanxi seismic observation report. These earthquakes occurred 4–50 min after the passage of the maximum amplitude Rayleigh wave, and the periods of the surface waves were mainly between 15 and 20 s following. The Coulomb stresses caused by the Rayleigh waves that acted on the four stations was about 0.001 MPa, which is a little lower than the threshold value of dynamic triggering, therefore, we may conclude that the Datong volcanic region is more sensitive to the Coulomb stress change. To verify, if the similar phenomena are widespread, we used the same filtering to observe contrastively continuous waveform data before, and 5 h after, the M _S7.0 Lushan earthquake and M _S9.0 Tohoku earthquake in 2011. The results show that the similar phenomena occur before the earthquakes, but the seismicity rates after the earthquakes are remarkably increased. Since these weak earthquakes are quite small, it is hard to get clear phase arrival time from three or more stations to locate them. In addition, the travel time differences between P waves and S waves (S–P) are all less than 4 s, that means the events should occur in 34 km around the stations in the volcanic region. The stress of initial dynamic triggering of the M _S9.0 Tohoku earthquake was about 0.09 MPa, which is much higher than the threshold value of dynamic triggering stress. The earthquakes after the M _S9.0 Tohoku earthquake are related to dynamic triggering stress, but the events before the earthquake cannot be linked to seismic events, but may be related to the background seismicity or from other kinds of local sources, such as anthropogenic sources (i.e., explosions). Using two teleseismic filtering, the small background earthquakes in the Datong volcanic region occur frequently, thus we postulate that previous catalog does not apply bandpass filter to pick out the weak earthquakes, and some of the observed weak events were not triggered by changes in the dynamic stress field.     

Estimation of PKP times from ISC data

The International Seismological Centre (ISC) treats reports of the earliest observed core phase arrivals from earthquakes as PKIKP observations and provides residuals based on Jeffreys-Bullen PKIKP times. An analysis of some 30 000 such data from ISC bulletins for the year 1967 has shown that the data include, in addition to PKIKP, many observations of PKP₁ and precursors to PKP. By the use of simple truncation and trimming techniques, travel-time curves (expressed as differences from JB), with standard errors, have been obtained for PKIKP in the ranges 110 to 139° and 152 to 173°, and for PKP₁ in the range 144 to 154°. The PKIKP curve in these ranges agrees quite closely with the curve obtained by Cleary and Hales, and with one derived from model 1066B of Gilbert and Dziewonski, except that the Cleary-Hales curve is up to 0.7 s earlier at distances below 120°, and the 1066B curve is up to 1 s later beyond 152°. The PKP₁ curve is in good agreement with that derived from 1066B.A plot of the number of observations in each 1° distance interval has been used to estimate the positions of the cusps B, C and D on the PKP curve as 144, 152.5 and 115°, again in reasonable agreement with 1066B.     

Assessment of surface-wave magnitudes of earthquakes in Greece

This paper uses amplitude and perioddata of long waves, culled from station bulletins, andthe Prague formula to make uniform reappraisals ofsurface-wave magnitudes M_S of events in Greeceand adjacent regions between 1901 and 1993. We findthat station and distance corrections of M_S areimportant only for relatively small events or forpoorly observed larger shocks. Also that M_Sestimates in earthquake catalogues for Greece areoverestimated by 0.2 to 0.6 magnitude units, withoccasional larger discrepancies for subcrustalevents.     

地下流体中强震源兆、场兆和强震远兆特征及其物理成因

初步分析了乌鲁木齐9、10号泉地下流体中强震源兆、场兆及强震远兆特征。结果表明,中强震源兆具体表现为震前1~ 2年观测点的绝大多数主测项出现同步性高值异常,临震前可能出现转折或反向,震后恢复正常;绝大多数中强震场兆则表现为观测点仅有部分测项出现短期异常变化;而强震场兆则表现为观测点少数映震性能较好的几个测项出现同步性较好的中期前兆异常;强震(群)远兆则主要表现为个别映震较好的测项出现前兆异常。并对震兆形成的原因进行了初步探讨。     

The Erzincan (Turkey) Earthquake (Ms 6.8) of March 13, 1992 and its Aftershock Sequence

—The Erzincan strike-slip earthquake of March 13, 1992 ruptured a section of the North Anatolian fault (NAF) at the northern margin of the Erzincan basin. The focal depth of about 10 km was less than given by ISC and NEIC. Erzincan and the surrounding villages were considerably damaged. In the Erzincan basin and in the neighbouring mountains a seismic network of ten stations was installed. It was operating continuously from March 21 through June 16, 1992. More than 3,000 aftershocks were recorded of which 505 could be located. The spectral parameters of 394 and the fault-plane solutions of 53 aftershocks were determined. For the given region the frequency dependent coda Q was derived as Q _c = 122 f ^0.68. The aftershock area increased with time, reflecting the process of stress redistribution. Some events clustered in the immediate vicinity of the town of Erzincan close to the epicentre of the main event and seem to trace the NAF. Their source mechanism is similar to that of the main event (strike slip). About 150 aftershocks clustered in the southeastern part of the Erzincan basin where a concentration of the events in a small volume of 5 × 5 × 3 km³ was observed. The majority of fault-plane solutions available for these aftershocks showed a normal faulting mechanism with an east-west directed extension. Most of the aftershocks southeast of the basin clustered between two lineaments that were mapped by satellite images. The P-wave velocity below the Erzincan basin, derived from travel-time residual analysis, is lower compared to areas NE and SW of the basin. Three-dimen sional stress modelling of the Erzincan region qualitatively explains the occurrence of the aftershocks southeast of the basin. The calculated displacement distribution which exhibits the north-westward motion of the basin and tension at its southeastern margin, caused by the Erzincan earthquake, is in agreement with derived fault-plane solutions.     

Crustal phases in earthquake location

For crustal earthquakes of moderate or large size, the first reported phases at distant stations are usually the first predicted by the crustal model used. For smaller events, however, or for stations at larger distances, the first phase detected is often a later crustal phase of larger amplitude. This may be eitherPg which travels entirely in the upper crustal layer with a velocity of about 5.6 km/s, orP ^* with a path mainly in the lower crustal layer at a velocity of about 6.7 km/s. Many earthquake location programs do not take account of these phases, and treat their arrivals as if they were the earlier phasePn. At the International Seismological Centre we re-identify up to 200 crustal phases each month. This often results in significant improvement in position, the direct determination of depth or even the obtaining of a formal solution where none was possible before. We find that these re-identifications are needed in most continental areas of the world, and that the original crustal model of Jeffreys and Bullen still remains a useful standard.On leave from the Seismological Laboratory, Institute for Earth Physics, P. O. Box MG-2, 76900 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania