ISC Bulletin: bulletin search

https://doi.org/10.31905/D808B830

Please do not search via isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu as it will be turned off in 2024, please use www.isc.ac.uk


From data year 2021 ISF 1 will not be able to show arrival data that has a network code, please use ISF 2.1

The ISC Bulletin has now been completely rebuilt for the period 1964-2010. As a result, the ISC hypocentre solutions and magnitudes for the entire period of 1964-latest are based on the ak135 velocity model and the location procedure that is currently used in operations. The Bulletin has been cleaned up and a considerable number of previously unavailable data of permanent and temporary seismic deployments have been added.


This page is used to search the ISC database to output a full event bulletin in either IASPEI Seismic Format (ISF) or as an XML stream.

Queries can be made to one of the following databases:
  • ISC Bulletin
    • contains all Bulletin data from both reviewed and unreviewed events
    • contains the most recent events (after 2022-11-01), which have yet to be reviewed
  • Reviewed ISC Bulletin
    • A subset of the ISC Bulletin that has been reviewed by ISC analysts according to the review procedure
    • The reviewed data are typically 24 months behind real-time. Data after 2022-11-01 have not been reviewed.

This is the standard search page for the ISC Bulletin. To complete a search using customised shapes, an interactive search page is available:

Interactive search




Select database:
Reviewed ISC Bulletin ISC Bulletin

Output format:
ISF 2.1 Bulletin ISF 1.0 Bulletin QuakeML (XML stream)


Choose search region:

Rectangular search
Bottom latitude (-90 to 90): Top latitude (-90 to 90):
Left longitude (-180 to 180): Right longitude (-180 to 180):


Circular search
Central latitude (-90 to 90): Central longitude (-180 to 180):
Search radius:

Global search

Flinn-Engdahl region (only one option needed)
Seismic region number (1 to 50):
Geographic region number (1 to 757):

Select time period:

Start date: Time (HH:MM:SS):
End date: Time (HH:MM:SS):


Optional search parameters:

Min depth (km): Max depth (km): Include events with unknown depths:
Min magnitude: Max magnitude: Include events with unknown magnitudes:
Magnitude type
(use CTRL for multiple types): 		Magnitude author: (E.g. ISC, NEIC, GCMT/HRVD, JMA)
Min defining phases: Max defining phases: Include events without defining phases:


Output options:

Only output Prime hypocentres
Output phases
Output magnitudes
Output web links
Output headers
Output comments




About the bulletin search

Use this search to output all available data within the ISC Bulletin. This includes access to prime (preferred) and secondary hypocentres, magnitude values, phase data and moment tensor solutions.

Database

  • Reviewed ISC Bulletin:

    • A subset of the ISC Bulletin that has been manually reviewed by ISC analysts. This includes all events that have been relocated by the ISC. For more information on the Reviewed ISC Bulletin, see here.

  • ISC Bulletin:

    • The entire ISC Bulletin from both reviewed and unreviewed events. This includes the most recent events, which have yet to be reviewed.

Output format

  • ISF Bulletin:

    • The IASPEI Seismic Format (ISF) is a fixed format bulletin. Further information about the different versions of the format and links to the full documentation can be found on the ISF page.

  • QuakeML:

    • QuakeML is an XML representation of seismological data. Data are output as an XML stream using the QuakeML XML Schema, version 1.2. QuakeML has some significant advantages in readability for computers, due to the availability of XML parsers. The format also allows for a distinction to be made between 'picks' provided to the ISC, and 'arrivals', which are picks the ISC has associated to the prime hypocentre. This output is not designed for use in a browser and will cause browsers to crash for large queries. Guidance for constructing URLs to access data in QuakeML is provided on the ISC web services page. For a complete explanation of the schema, please view the documentation on the QuakeML site.

Search region

There are four possible methods for defining a search region (rectangular, circular, global, Flinn-Engdahl region). Leaving fields blank, will automatically default to a global search. To interactively define a search region, using customised shapes, please use the interactive search page. The defined region is used to check only the prime hypocentre - secondary hypocentres within a search region will not influence the results.

Time period

This is the start and end date to search for events. Only the prime hypocentre will be searched to match events - i.e. origin times for secondary hypocentres will not influence the results.

Unknown depths

As some events have no determined depth, you may optionally choose to include events with unknown depths in the search. This will return events which match any selected depth constraint you enter as well as events with no depth.

Unknown magnitudes

As some events have no determined magnitude, you may optionally choose to include events with unknown magnitude values in the search. This will return events which match any selected magnitude constraint you enter as well as events with no magnitude value.

Magnitude type

Limit events by magnitude for specific magnitude types. Due to the large number of magnitude types and the various notation used, the selected type will search all magnitudes of that type. E.g. MB will match all body-wave magnitudes: mb, mB, MB, mb1mx, etc.

Magnitude author

Limit events by magnitude values determined by a specific author. ISC, NEIC, GCMT/HRVD and JMA amongst others are considered reliable magnitude authors. The default uses 'Any', which will match any author that has a magnitude for both prime and secondary hypocentres included in an event. Selecting 'prime author' will limit the search to magnitudes directly associated with the prime hypocentre (usually the same author as the prime hypocentre) - i.e. for events with an ISC authored prime hypocentre, selecting 'Prime author', will limit events to those with ISC determined magnitudes (and any min/max value specified).

Please note: selecting either GCMT or HRVD, will search magnitudes from both of these agencies, as GCMT is a continuation of HRVD.

Defining phases

Defining phases are travel-times, which have been used in the computation of a hypocentre. For events without an ISC authored hypocentre, the number of defining phases is generally unknown. You may optionally choose to include events where the number of defining phases for the prime hypocentre is unknown. This only applies if you have specified a minimum or maximum number of defining phases.

Only output Prime hypocentres

Multiple hypocentres from multiple agencies (E.g. NEIC, IDC, GCMT (centroids)) are contained within the ISC Bulletin for a particular event. The prime hypocentre is the preferred solution. For events with an ISC determined hypocentre, this always be prime. You may optionally limit the output to only show the prime hypocentres. This will also limit magnitudes to those associated to the prime hypocentre.

Output phases

This includes phase data in the output. Phase data includes any arrival-times, amplitudes, station magnitudes, flags for defining phases and travel-time residuals. The size of the output will be significantly increased by outputting phases.

Output magnitudes

This includes network magnitude data in the output.

Output weblinks

This includes any available links for the event such as a link to the full Bulletin output, a link to form a waveform request and any external links. There are also links for each agency to provide their full details.

Output headers

This includes a header with a unique ID number and the geographic region for each event.

Output comments

This outputs all comments, which include focal mechanism solutions for ISF.