Contents

1
Local Data, Global Science

2
USGS NEIC Bulletins and Catalogs
S. Sipkin, et al.

Local Data, Global Science

For over a century, openly exchanged data has been the cornerstone of seismology. Little can be done with the recordings from a single seismic station, and elastic wave propagation does not stop at either political or institutional boundaries. The nature of our science requires openly distributed data, and global bulletins serve as both evidence for this requirement and as a symbol of international cooperation.

Whether broadcast on the Internet, relayed by satellite, transmitted by modem, or mailed as tape, seismological data travel around the world each day

by almost every form of transportation and in almost every medium. Unusual ground motion at one observatory triggers inquiries to other observatories. Time windows are selected, arrivals are identified, phases are associated, events are analyzed, and results are shared. For each earthquake, one can never predict which pathway will lead to a new discovery and which location will provide the critical data.

This issue of the IRIS Newsletter features articles (along with additional commentary) on the global bulletins produced by the US Geological Survey, the International Seismological Centre, and the International Data Center for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. While few of us pay attention to the vast infrastructure (both technical and political) that routinely provides us with global earthquake information at the "click of a mouse", none of us could imagine doing our science or teaching our courses without it.

Because of its proximity to Washington, DC, earthquake reports sent from the Georgetown University Observatory (established in 1909) were often the first to be received by the US Government. Pictured above, the Dean of the Graduate School reads a Roman ritual as part of the blessing for the new seismograph installed in 1959. (See story page 21)