ISC-EHB: reconstruction of a robust earthquake data set

Abstract

The Engdahl-van der Hilst-Buland (EHB) Bulletin of hypocentres and associated traveltime residuals was originally developed with procedures described by (Engdahl et al. 1998) and ended in 2008. It is a widely used seismological data set, which is now expanded and reconstructed, partly by exploiting updated procedures at the International Seismological Centre (ISC), to produce the ISC-EHB. The reconstruction begins in the modern period (2000–2013) to which new and more rigorous procedures for event selection, data preparation, processing and relocation are applied. The selection criteria minimize the location bias produced by unmodelled 3-D Earth structure, resulting in events that are relatively well-located in any given region. Depths of the selected events are significantly improved by a more comprehensive review of near station and secondary phase traveltime residuals based on ISC data, especially for the depth phases pP, pwP and sP, as well as by a rigorous review of the event depths in subduction zone cross-sections. The resulting cross-sections and associated maps are shown to provide details of seismicity in subduction zones in much greater detail than previously achievable. The new ISC-EHB data set will be especially useful for global seismicity studies and high-frequency regional and global tomographic inversions.