World Seismicity Catalog

Up to 1984 the world seismicity catalog for the 20^th century was taken at phase value in the studies of earthquake prediction, potential and risk analysis. Under the postulates that the rate of occurrence of shallow depth seismicity in the magnitude range M > 6 on Earth should be constant in time and equal to the rate of listing in the world catalogs since the installation of the World Wide Seismological Network, I found a series of man-made errors in the calculation of the earthquake magnitudes that led to changes in the rates of earthquake magnitude listings provided by the world seismological agencies. These man-made errors included the use of different formulations and criteria to calculate the parameter magnitude by various agencies around the world throughout the 20^th century, increases in the capabilities of recording with time and a strong decrease in these capabilities during WW II.

I was able to correct the world catalog in such a way, that it lists the correct magnitude for all events of M > 7 occurring on Earth for the whole century, and for events of M > 6 for the period 1950 on. I introduced in the scientific literature the concept of “completeness” of seismicity catalogs for a given magnitude range. My results are being used nowadays by seismological researchers around the world. The corresponding papers are the following: