ALBERT

Description: The International Federation of Digital Seismographic Networks (FDSN) is a non-governmental organization formed by institutions dedicated to seismological research and seismic monitoring. The FDSN is a successful complement to the International Seismological Centre (ISC) in pursuing a more than a century old tradition of global seismic data exchange. The main goal of the FDSN is the production and dissemination of seismic waveform data from high fidelity seismic observatories. The federation is formed by 65 organizations from 52 countries that contribute data to three main data centers in the United States, Europe, and Japan. A subset of the stations that conform the FDSN send real-time to the data management center (DMC) of the Incorporated Research Institutions of Seismology (IRIS) in the United States. Data from this real-time network is crucial to the determination of the seismic parameters of large earthquakes in a very short time after their occurrence and to support the efforts of institutions that are responsible for disaster relief or prevention. Most notably, tsunami warning centers use this information as a fundamental underpinning to issue warnings and alerts. The FDSN is an early participant of the global earth observation system of systems (GEOSS), contributing high-quality, timely and freely accessible seismic data. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the FDSN from the viewpoint of an integrated system of observatories and to share with other GEOSS networks the successes, challenges and lessons learned by the FDSN in promoting the open and free access of seismological data for the benefit of scientific research and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Description: A new model of the three-dimensional shear velocity structure of the Africa-Eurasia plate boundary is presented. The new model is derived by jointly inverting different types of seismic data. The two main sources of information are regional waveforms and teleseismic S wave arrival times. We show that it is possible to find a model that fit the different data types nearly as well as when inverting solely one type of data. The main improvement in resolving power is achieved between depths of 300 and 700 km, though the improvements are not limited to this depth range. Our model reflects the complicated evolution of this plate boundary area. The transition zone is dominated by high-velocity anomalies which we infer to represent a mix of lithosphere that subducted relatively recently or is not sufficiently cold and dense to traverse the 660-km discontinuity. The only low-velocity zone in the transition zone is beneath the Ionian Sea. The high-velocity Hellenic slab is continuous throughout the upper mantle and into the lower mantle to about 1200 km, most likely representing subducted Neo-Tethys lithosphere. The uppermost mantle is dominated by low velocities, consistent with the high level of tectonic activity. Low-velocity regions are relatively strong beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Turkey, and the Dead Sea region. The region's current lithosphere is relatively thin, except beneath the Adriatic and Ionian seas and the easternmost Atlantic Ocean.

Description: [1] We provide a procedure for the routine determination of moment tensors from earthquakes with magnitudes as low as MW 4.4 using data recorded by only a few permanent seismic stations at regional to teleseismic distances. Waveforms are inverted for automatically determined frequency pass-bands that depend on source-receiver locations as well as the earthquake magnitude. Inversion results are stable against small variations in the frequency band and provide low data variances, i.e., a good fit between observed and modelled waveform traces. The total frequency band used for our procedure ranges from 10 mHz to 29 mHz (periods of 35 s to 100 s). This enables us to determine focal mechanisms for earthquakes that were not derived previously by routine procedures of CMT or other agencies. As a case study, we determine focal mechanism solutions of 38 light to moderate magnitude earthquakes in eastern Africa between 1995 and 2002.

Description: An earthquake catalog containing a uniform size estimate is important for long-term seismic hazard assessment in regions of low-to-moderate seismicity. During the update of the Earthquake Catalog of Switzerland (ECOS), we performed regression analyses to convert all earthquake size information in ECOS to physically meaningful moment magnitude M-w. For 34 events in and near Switzerland, we determined seismic moment (thus Mw) by regional waveform inversion. Independent Mw estimates for the same events do not exist; however, Mw from European-Mediterranean events, obtained in the same way, agree with M, from Harvard CMT solutions. All other size estimates, M-L, M-D, m(b), M-S, and intensities, are calibrated relative to these 34 events. Teleseismic M-S and m(b) from international data centers are directly regressed against M-w. Most observations in ECOS consist of local magnitudes (ML, MD) and intensities. For local magnitudes, we first calibrated the Swiss Seismological Service's M-L. Then we calibrated magnitudes from observatories in neighboring countries (France, Germany, Italy) using only events in the border region (e.g., France-Switzerland). Modern instrumental records exist only since the mid-1970s. We calibrated the macroseismic dataset, which represents by far the largest period in the catalog, by determining surface wave magnitude M-S for stronger twentieth century Swiss earthquakes from analog seismograms. These M-S, which were converted to M-w, connect intensities and M-w. After calibration, all 20,300 events in ECOS have a unified M-w, including a class-type uncertainty estimate based on the original magnitude scale. ECOS covers the period 250-2001, from 44 degrees N to 51 degrees N and 4 degrees E to 13 degrees E. The largest event in ECOS is the 1356 M-w 6.9 Basle earthquake.

Description: Accurate, consistent earthquake size estimates are fundamental for seismic hazard evaluation. In central Europe, seismic activity is low and long-term seismicity, available as intensities from written historical records, has to be included for meaningful assessments. We determined seismic moments M-0 of 25 stronger twentieth-century events in Switzerland from surface-wave amplitude measurements. These M-0 can be used to calibrate intensity-moment relations applicable to preinstrumental data. We derived the amplitude-moment relation using digital data from 18 earthquakes in and near Switzerland where independent M-0 estimates exist. The surface-wave amplitudes were measured at empirically determined distance varying reference periods T-&UDelta;. For amplitudes measured at T-&UDelta;, the distance attenuation term of the surface-wave magnitude relation S(&UDelta;) = log (A/T)(max) + 1.66 log &UDelta; is independent of distance. For log M-0 = Ms + C-E, we get log M-0 = S(&UDelta;) + 14.90. Uncertainties of ± 0.3 for the 14.90-constant correspond to a factor of 2 M-0 uncertainty, which was verified with independent data. Our relation allows fast, direct M-0 determination for current earthquakes, and after recalibration of the constant, the relation can be applied anywhere. We applied our relation to analog seismograms from early-instrumental earthquakes in Switzerland that were collected from several European observatories. Amplitude measurements from scans were performed at large amplifications and corrected for differences between T-&UDelta; and actual measurement periods. The resulting magnitudes range from M-w = 4.6 to 5.8 for the largest earthquake in Switzerland during the twentieth century. Uncertainties for the early-instrumental events are on the order of 0.4 magnitude units.

Description: We describe the main structure and outcomes of the new probabilistic seismic hazard model for Italy, MPS19 [Modello di Pericolosità Sismica, 2019]. Besides to outline the probabilistic framework adopted, the multitude of new data that have been made available after the preparation of the previous MPS04, and the set of earthquake rate and ground motion models used, we give particular emphasis to the main novelties of the modeling and the MPS19 outcomes. Specifically, we (i) introduce a novel approach to estimate and to visualize the epistemic uncertainty over the whole country; (ii) assign weights to each model components (earthquake rate and ground motion models) according to a quantitative testing phase and structured experts’ elicitation sessions; (iii) test (retrospectively) the MPS19 outcomes with the horizontal peak ground acceleration observed in the last decades, and the macroseismic intensities of the last centuries; (iv) introduce a pioneering approach to build MPS19_cluster, which accounts for the effect of earthquakes that have been removed by declustering. Finally, to make the interpretation of MPS19 outcomes easier for a wide range of possible stakeholders, we represent the final result also in terms of probability to exceed 0.15 g in 50 years.