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

Abstract

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.