Community Facility Support: Partial Support of the International Seismological Centre

International Seismological Centre, Thatcham

Investigators

Abstract

For over 50 years, the ISC data provided the most comprehensive and complete account of earthquakes worldwide. This is the principal data source for several hundred research papers each year. The types of studies for which the ISC data are virtually indispensable include research of tectonics and inner Earth structure, seismic hazard and mitigation of earthquake disasters, earthquake source physics, earthquake forecasting, and monitoring the Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The ISC products also serve as unique and valuable tools for education. With the current tendency of other agencies such as USGS to focus their efforts on rapid determinations, the value of the most comprehensive and accurate ISC data is further enhanced. The goal is to continue for the next four years with the unique and highly important operations at the International Seismological Centre (ISC) with the purpose of enlarging, updating and extending the most definitive long-term account of the Earth's seismicity. The method is to continue and further improve the worldwide bulletin data collection, re-processing and distribution system based on the non-governmental and international status of the ISC that allows to collect the original data from approximately 150 networks worldwide, including quite a few otherwise unavailable sources. As a result, several widely used products are made freely available to the US and international research community: the ISC Bulletin, the Ground Truth List, the ISC-GEM catalog, the ISC-EHB Bulletin and the ISC Event Bibliography. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.