Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 89, 2, pp.

335-341, April 1999

Revised World Seismicity Catalog (1950-1997) for Strong (Ms >- 6)

Shallow (h = 70 km) Earthquakes
by Omar J. Ptrez

Abstract Using the standard earthquake catalogs provided by the International

Seismological Centre (ISC), its predecessor the International Seismological Summary
(ISS), and the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), I analyze the worldwide consistency of teleseismic reporting, completeness of the seismicity record, and
homogeneity of magnitude determination, for strong shallow earthquakes (surfacewave magnitude, Ms >- 6; depth, h -< 70 km) for the period 1950 to 1997. Under
the postulates that the rate of earthquake occurrence for the entire world is constant
on a time scale of decades and that well after the installation of the World-Wide
Standardized Seismograph Network in the middle 1960s the earthquake catalog for
strong (Ms >-- 6) shocks is complete, and the seismicity rates are typical of all periods
in the century, we find that, due to the use of different formulations and criteria to
calculate the parameter magnitude, the Ms of moderate (6 -< Ms < 7) events during
the period 1950 to 1963 was systematically overestimated by as much as 0.5 magnitude unit, relative to the Ms assigned to shocks occurring after 1963. When this
correction is taken into account, the new catalog of events with Ms (corrected) >-- 6
in the period 1950 to 1997 becomes largely homogeneous in Ms. Under the foregoing
postulates, this new catalog is shown to list nearly all and only the strong shocks
[Ms (corrected) -> 6; h -< 70 km] that occurred in the Earth during the period, a
notable exception being the time span from 1964 to 1968. The revised catalog, including the scalar moment and moment magnitude for each event, is listed on the
worldwide web page http://www.ldc.usb.ve/-ojperez/catalog.

Introduction
The ptu-pose of this article is to present a revised instrumental seismicity catalog for the whole world, for shallow
depth (h -< 70 km) shocks with surface-wave magnitude Ms
--- 6 that occurred from 1950 to 1997. This new catalog was
obtained after removing a series of heterogeneities concerning the consistency of teleseismic reporting and homogeneity of magnitude determination throughout time. These
heterogeneities were found under the following postulates
(Habermann, 1982; Prrez, 1983, 1984; Prrez and Scholz,
1984, 1997): (1) that on a time scale of decades, the world
seismicity rate [e.g., average number of earthquakes per year
(EQY)] for shallow shocks with Ms -> 6 should be constant;
(2) that during the last three decades, the earthquake catalog
for these shocks is complete, that is, all events that occurred
in the Earth are listed in the existing catalogs provided by
the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) or the
International Seismological Centre (ISC); and (3) that the
corresponding seismicity rate for events with Ms ~ 6 from
1969 to 1997 (i.e., well after the installation of the World
Wide Standardized Seismograph Network--WWSSN--in
1963) is typical of all periods in the century. These postu-

lates are supported by the observations of Habermann (1982)

and P6rez and Scholz (1984), that events with body-wave
magnitude mb -> 5 and Ms --> 7 for the entire world show a
fairly constant rate of listing since 1963 and 1948, respectively, in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ISC, and Abe's (1981) seismicity catalogs.
Thus, unless the set of Earth's tectonic plates moves
intermittently, generating significant changes in the world
seismicity rate for events with Ms --- 6 during different time
spans, one should get a roughly constant rate, due to the
large number of events generated by " . . . the worldwide
earthquake production system" (Habermann, 1982). Therefore, if one does have strong variations in the rate of listing
with time for a given magnitude band (e.g., for Ms >- 6, Ms
>- 6.5, and so on), the explanation is that either there have
been changes in the detection and reporting capabilities
through the years or that there has been an inhomogeneous
assignment of surface-wave magnitude with time, leading to
relative under- or overestimates of the size (Ms) of strong
shocks occurring in different time spans (Prrez and Scholz,
1984). This would obviously affect the rates of listing and
335

336
would introduce apparent changes in the world seismicity
rates.
Following this rationale and using the International
Seismological Summary seismicity catalog (ISS, 1904 to
1963) and the ISC Regional Catalogues of Earthquakes
(1964 to 1980), P6rez and Scholz (1984) analyzed the worldwide consistency of teleseismic reporting, completeness of
the seismicity record, and homogeneity of magnitude (M)
determination, for shallow earthquakes with M -> 6 in the
period 1900 to 1980. For the first half of the century, they
found a highly incomplete and heterogeneous seismicity catalog for events in the magnitude range 6 -< M < 7, mainly
due to the poor earthquake detection and reporting Capabilities and the low quality of the instrumentation at that time.
This makes it impossible to have a complete listing of all
events at the M - 6 level that occurred in the Earth prior to
1950. For the period 1950 to 1980, they conclude that the
Ms of events in the magnitude band 6 -----Ms < 7 from 1950
to 1963 was overestimated by as much as 0.6 unit with respect to the Ms assigned to those events from 1964 to 1980,
mainly due to the use of different formulations and criteria
to calculate and report the parameter "magnitude" by the
various seismological agencies through time. They suggested that if the appropriate corrections were made, the catalog would be largely homogeneous in Ms and complete for
events with Ms -> 6 in the period 1950 to 1980, but they did
not present the corrected catalog.
Following and extending the work of P6rez and Scholz
(1984), in this article, we analyze a larger data set (M >-- 6;
h --- 70 km; 1950 to 1997) provided by ISS (1950 to 1963),
ISC (1964 to 1994), and NEIC (1963 to 1997). We show that
the Ms for events in the range 6 -- Ms < 7 in 1950 to 1963
was overestimated by as much as 0.5 unit with respect to the
Ms assigned to shocks in the same range occurring since
1964. This conclusion comes from the following observations: (1) that the rate of reporting for events with Ms >- 6
in 1950 to 1963 is --123 EQY, whereas the corresponding
rate for the period 1969 to 1997 is - 5 5 EQY, and (2) that
there is no change in the seismicity rate for events with Ms
>-- 7 during the period 1948 to 1997 (Fig. 1; P6rez and
Scholz, 1984, 1997; Pacheco and Sykes, 1992), and therefore, the reporting rate change observed is related to events
in the range 6-< Ms < 7. When the appropriate corrections
are applied, so that a constant seismicity rate (equal to that
during the period 1969 to 1997) for Ms ~ 6 in 1950 to 1997
is obtained, the new catalog is shown to list nearly all and
only the events with Ms (corrected) -> 6. A notable exception
is the time span following the installation of the WWSSN
from 1964 to 1968, due to the incompleteness of the ISC
earthquake catalog for the period 1964 to 1978, and the lack
of magnitude data in the NEIC catalog for the years prior to
1969.
First, we describe the data and method of analysis. Then
we present the results of our investigation. This includes the
evaluation of the completeness of the shallow seismicity (Ms
--> 6) record for the period 1950 to 1997, and the magnitude-

O.J. P6rez

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Figure 1. Worldwide cumulative number of shallow depth (h -< 70 km) earthquakes with corrected
surface-wave magnitude Ms(G) --> 7 for the period
1904 to 1997 [modified from P6rez (1983) and P6rez
and Scholz (1984)]. The plot given by these authors
ends in 1980. Thus, for the period 1981 to 1997, we
follow Pacheco and Sykes (1992) and completed their
curve by adding up the events listed in NEIC's (PDE)
seismicity catalog. Since 1969, NEIC lists Ms(V),
which turns out in practice to be nearly equal to
Ms(G) (Lienkaemper, 1984; Pacheco and Sykes,
1992).
correction factors needed for the period 1950 to 1963, so
that a homogeneous catalog listing all and only the events
with Ms >-- 6 in 1950 to 1997 is obtained. The new catalog,
including the scalar moment and moment magnitude (Mw)
for each event is given on a worldwide web page.

Data and Method of Analysis

Three basic data files that give time of occurrence, location, and magnitude (M) for seismic events in the magnitude range 6 --< M < 7 occurring since 1950 were used in
this study. They are the ISS (1950 to 1963), ISC (1964 to
1994), and NEIC (1968 to 1997; same as PDE, Preliminary
Determination of Epicenters) seismicity catalogs. Hereafter,
we shall frequently refer to the ISS and ISC data files simply
as the ISS-ISC file.
For the period 1950 to 1994, the ISS- ISC file compiles
the magnitude data given by various agencies, among them
the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (CGS, 1950 to
1968); Pasadena (PAS, 1953 to 1963); Bureau Central International de S6ismologie (BCIS, 1950 to 1963); Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA, 1953 to 1963); ISC (1964 to
1994); Moscow (MOS, 1956 to 1994); and others after 1945.
Taking into account that all these agencies calculated the
parameter magnitude (Ms, m, roB, rob, M~, MD [see Gutenberg and Richter (1954), Richter (1958), B~ith (1967, 1969)],
and Abe (1981) for definitions of the various magnitude
scales) using a variety of formulations and criteria (see B/~th,

Revised World Seismicity Catalog (1950-1997)for Strong (Ms => 6) Shallow (h <=70 km) Earthquakes

1967, 1979; Prrez and Scholz, 1984), it is clear that the

degree of heterogeneity of the catalog is very high. For instance, BCIS always reported magnitude data from PAS for
the largest (M --> 6.5) shocks, but for smaller events, they
reported data from PAS, Uppsala and Kiruna, Wellington,
Rome, and others. In turn, most of these stations used different formulas and criteria (compiled in Bfith, 1967, 1979)
to calculate and report magnitudes. For example, Rome' s Ms
is (0.62 + 0.13 log D) times (D = epicentral distance in
degrees) larger than Ms(G) (as originally defined by Gutenberg, 1945); but they actually reported m (unified magnitude) gathered from their Ms, such that m = 0.474 Ms +
3.59, and therefore m (Rome) > Ms (Rome) > Ms(G) for
Ms(G) < 6.8. Wellington reported "rough indications only"
prior to 1956 (all quotations are from B~ith, 1967), and m
(as in Gutenberg and Richter, 1956) up to 1967. JMA used
a " . . . magnitude scale equivalent to Ms(G), according to
Tsuboi's formulation for Ms," which rums out to be (1.21
+ 0.074 log D) times larger than Ms(G). Polish stations
reported "principally M L but from atypical instruments."
Thus, the magnitude values reported by many of these agencies were somewhat larger than the values that would have
been obtained using the original formulation of Gutenberg
(1945) for Ms, further supporting the postulates given in the
Introduction.
Prrez and Scholz (1984) point out, however, that fortunately the ISS-ISC compilation file (1950 to 1980) is homogeneous in Ms for "significant events" (B~ith, 1967) in
the band M -> 6.5 for the following reasons~ First, because
for events in this band in the period 1950 to 1963 CGS, BCIS,
PAS, and MOS report Ms obtained from --20-sec-period surface waves according to the original formulation of Gutenberg (1945) [Ms(G)] (Bfith, 1967, 1979; Abe, 1981; P6rez
and Scholz, 1984), with CGS and BCIS reporting data mostly
from PAS, although it is clear that radiation pattern effects
introduce errors in the determination of the magnitude from
a single station. And second, because since 1964, ISC reports
Ms calculated according to Van~k et al. (1962) [Ms(V)] such
that Ms(V) = Ms(G) + 0.18 for 20-sec-period surface
waves (Abe, 1981). In practice, however, the values obtained
from any of these two formulations are practically identical
(Lienkaemper, 1984), apparently because the stations used
to develop Ms(V) were previously calibrated with Gutenberg's magnitudes (Pacheco and Sykes, 1992). As we shall
later see, these facts allow us to construct a more homogeneous and complete catalog for events with Ms --> 6 for the
period 1950 to 1997, also knowing that since mid-1968,
NEIC reports Ms according to the formulation given by Vanak et al. (1962).
For events with Ms --> 7 in 1904 to 1980, we used Abe's
(1981) catalog revised according to the findings of Prrez and
Scholz (1984), which were later confirmed by Pacheco and
Sykes (1992), who listed and completed the data set up to
1990. For shocks with Ms --> 7 occurring after 1990, we used
both the ISC and NEIC (PDE) catalogs, which are essentially
the same for this time span. This revised catalog for events

337

with Ms -> 7 in 1904 to 1997 (Ms according to the original

formulation of Gutenberg, 1945) shows a fairly constant rate
of reporting with time (Fig. 1). Thus, it is considered to be
fairly complete, that is, to list nearly all the shallow events
with Ms -> 7 that occurred in the Earth from 1904 to 1997
(Prrez and Scholz, 1984, 1997; Pacheco and Sykes, 1992).
To analyze the completeness of the earthquake history and
homogeneity of magnitude determination for shocks with
Ms --> 6 in 1950 to 1997, we plot the cumulative number of
earthquakes listed per year (EQY hereafter) as a function of
time, adding up only independent shocks. That is, aftershocks and multiple delayed (related) events or compound
events of the type described by Das and Scholz (1981) and
Scholz (1990, p. 210) are removed, following the same techniques described by POrez and Scholz (1984). That is, mainshock-aftershocks sequences and compound events are
counted as one single independent shock. This was done
mainly to minimize the effects on the calculated seismicity
rates of infrequent very large earthquakes (e.g., moment
magnitude, Mw > 8), which in general are followed by relatively large aftershock sequences. Also, because we observed that for the years prior to - 1964, the various agencies
contained in the ISS data file tended not to report the magnitudes for all aftershocks, so it would be unfair to count
them in a given period but not in another period. In any case,
our results do not change due to this aftershock and compound shocks removal, because these events are evenly distributed in time. We next proceed to identify any significant
change in the rate of earthquake listing for Ms --- 6, which
for the period 1969 to 1997, we interpret as the true world's
seismicity rate and search for the origin of the change. The
criterion we used to identify the changes is simple and adjusted to the general nature of this study. We follow Habermann (1982, 1987) and used the normal deviate (Z) test for
a difference between two means (e.g., Richmond, 1964) to
determine whether a rate change qualitatively identified is
significant at the >99% confidence limit and to get the time
of maximum rate change. Then we proceed to get the magnitude-corrections factors as a function of time, necessary to
obtain a constant seismicity rate during the whole period
1950 to 1997, for shallow earthquakes with Ms -> 6 for all
the world. Finally, we construct the revised catalog that includes the scalar moment (M0) for each event. For those
shocks in the range 6 ~ Ms < 7 that occurred prior to 1976,
M 0 was calculated from an Ms versus M 0 relationship that
we derived from Harvard's centroid moment tensor solutions (CMTS) for all the shallow events they list with Ms in
the range 6 -< Ms <- 7.5 from 1976 to 1997. For this latter
period, we list M 0 as given by Harvard's CMTS. For the
largest events (Ms >-- 7), we list the moments given by Pacheco and Sykes (1992) (1950 to 1990) and Harvard's CMTS
(1991 to 1997).
Results
Figure 2 shows the worldwide cumulative number of
shallow (h -< 70 kin) earthquakes with M ---6 reported in the

338

O.J. P6rez

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1950

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1960

1970

1980

1990

TIME

ISS-ISC file for the period 1950 to 1994 (closed circles) and
by NEIC (PDE) for the period 1969 to 1997 (closed squares).
Also shown are the times of significant changes (vertical
bars) in the rate of teleseismic reporting identified in the ISSISC catalog and the rates (EQY) themselves (numerals) for
the various time spans between bars. We recall that ISC and
NEIC report Ms(V) since 1964 and 1969, respectively. For
the period 1950 to 1963, the magnitudes (M) are taken at
face value from the ISS catalog, knowing that they are in
general Ms(G) from CGS [basically PAS, and to a much less
degree from other sources like Palisades (PAL) and Berkeley
(BKL)] for the range M --> 6.5 and some magnitude value
(M s, m, mB, mb, MB, ML) from various agencies for the range
6 --< M < 6.5. The various breaks in the plot shown in Figure
2 clearly reflect this inhomogeneous calculation and assignment of the parameter magnitude with time.
We note first in Figure 2 that the teleseismic-reporting
rate (TRR) for events with M ~ 6 in the ISS catalog changes
from 109 + 17 EQY in the period 1950 to 1956 to 137 +
14 EQY in 1957 to 1963, a clear effect of the scientific efforts
made since the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in
1957. Suddenly, following the installation of the WWSSN,
the TRR (from the ISC catalog) decreases drastically to 38
+_ 6 EQY in 1964 to 1978 and then increases to 54 +_ 8
EQY in 1979 to 1994. This latter TRR from the ISC catalog
is nearly identical to the TRR obtained from NEIC's catalog
(55 _+ 7 EQY) for 1969 to 1997. Under the postulate that
this latter TRR corresponds to the actual world seismicity

2000

Figure 2. Worldwide cumulative number

of shallow depth (h -< 70 km) earthquakes with
magnitude M --> 6 as listed in the ISS-ISC file
for the period 1950 to 1994 (closed circles) and
in NEIC's (]?DE)seismicity catalog for the period 1969 to 1997 (closed squares). Changes in
the TRR (Figs. 2 and 3) recognized at the
>99% confidence level, as described in the
text, are indicated by vertical bars. Numerals
indicate reporting rates for the various time
spans between bars. The TRR from NEIC in
1969 to 1997 (55 ___ 7 EQY) is interpreted as
the true seismicity rate for the world. ISC and
NEIC report Ms(V) since 1964 and 1969, respectively. For the period 1950 to 1963, ISS
reports Ms(G) from CGS and PAS for shocks
with M >- 6.5 and some magnitude value (Ms,
m, rng, rob, Me, ML) from various agencies for
the smaller shocks. Note the TRR increase that
takes place after the scientific efforts made
since the International Geophysical Year (IGY)
in 1957 to 1958 and the strong decrease occurring since 1964, just after the installation of
WWSSN. This TRR decrease is interpreted as a
result of a relative overestimation of the magnitudes assigned to those shocks reported in the
period 1950 to 1963, with respect to the Ms(V)
calculated for those events occurring since
1964. The TRR increase since 1978 in the ISC
file indicates that this catalog is not complete
for Ms >--6 for the period 1964 to 1978.

rate for events with Ms -----6, we conclude that the ISC catalog
is not complete for the period 1964 to 1978. Also, since the
average TRR for 1950 to 1963 (123 _+ 14 EQY) is significantly larger than the TRR for 1969 to 1997 (55 +_ 7 EQY),
we conclude that the magnitudes of events in 1950 to 1963
were overestimated with respect to the Ms(V) calculated
since 1964.
To estimate the amount of this magnitude overestimation, we note, by trial and error, that the TRR for events with
M ~ 6.5 in 1950 to 1963 is 56 + 11 EQY, a rate nearly
identical to the TRR for Ms >_--6 in 1969 to 1997 (55 _+ 7
EQY). This indicates that these two data sets correspond to
each other and that the magnitude overestimation in 1950 to
1963 amounted to as much as 0.5 unit. We recall that there
is no significant change in the TRR for events with Ms >-- 7
from 1950 to 1997 (Fig. 1), and therefore, the TRR changes
in Figure 2 are related to events in the range 6 <-- M < 7.
To sort out this heterogeneity and to have a seismicity
catalog listing only of events with Ms(V) >-- 6 from 1950 to
1997, what we have to do first is to remove from the original
ISS data file all events with M -< 6.4 in 1950 to 1963. Figure
3 shows this corrected data set, that is, we plot the cumulative number of events with M -> 6.5 in the ISS catalog for
the period 1950 tO 1963; the events with Ms(V) >-- 6 from
the ISC catalog for 1964 to 1968; and the events with Ms(V)
--> 6 from NEIC's catalog for 1969 to 1997. The TRR so
obtained for the period 1950 to 1997 is fairly constant and
equal to the TRR for Ms(V) --> 6 in 1969 to 1997. Therefore,

Revised World Seismicity Catalog (1950-1997)for Strong (Ms _->6) Shallow (h <=70 km) Earthquakes

3000

2500
w
W

2000.

W
4

1500.
Z
1000

5
Ms(corrected) > 6

500'
0
0
1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

TIME

Figure 3. Worldwide cumulative number of shallow (h --< 70 km) earthquakes for the period 1950 to
1997, once the appropriate magnitude correction factors arc applied. That is, from ISS-ISC, we take the
magnitude band Ms >- 6.5 for 1950 to 1963, and the
band Ms -> 6 for 1964 to 1968. From NEIC, we take
the band Ms --> 6 for 1969 to 1997. The TRR so obtained for the period 1950 to 1997 is fairly constant
and equal to NEIC's TRR (55 _+ 7 EQY) for 1969 to
1997. Therefore, this new catalog is nearly complete
for Ms --> 6 for the whole world for the period 1950
to 1997, a notable exception being the time span between bars from 1964 to 1968, which shows a TRR
of 34 + 5 EQY. This heterogeneity is due to the incompleteness of the ISC catalog for this latter time
span and to the lack of magnitude data in NEIC's catalog for the years prior to 1969.

this new catalog is nearly complete for Ms(V) -----6 for the
whole world in the period 1950 to 1997. A notable exception
is the time span from 1964 to 1968, due to the incompleteness of the ISC catalog for this time span and the lack of
magnitude data in NEIC's catalog for the years prior to 1969.
To assign an Ms (corrected) to every single event in the
period 1950 to 1963 in the new catalog, we note first that
we cannot simply subtract 0.5 from all the events in the range
6.5 <- M < 7 in the original ISS catalog, because we would
end up with a new catalog having no events in that range.
So what we did was to make the correction in a linear manner, such that Ms (corrected) = 2 M (ISS) - 7, valid for
the range 6 -< M (ISS) < 7 from 1950 to 1963. That is, the
smaller M (ISS), the larger the correction, and vice versa
[e.g., for M (ISS) = 6.5, 6.6, 6.8, then Ms (corrected) = 6,
6.2, 6.6, and so on]. As pointed out in the previous section,
we recall that for events with Ms ~ 7, we have a complete
and homogeneous catalog in Ms for the whole world for the
period 1950 to 1997 (Abe, 1981; Prrez and Scholz, 1984,
1997; Pacheco and Sykes, 1992).
This way of correcting is justified for the following reasons. First, because there must be events in the whole range
of magnitudes 6. Second, because the Ms of events with M
-----7 from 1948 to 1980 in A b e ' s (1981) catalog are fairly

339

accurate and similar to those given by ISS-ISC and NEIC for

the same period (Prrez and Scholz, 1984; Pacheco and
Sykes, 1992). This suggests that the overestimation for the
largest of those events in the magnitude range 6.5 --< M <
7 was somehow smaller than the overestimation for the
smaller events in that range. Finally, because we cannot do
any better, our best estimate is that the corrected magnitudes
have an uncertainty of _ 0.2. Note that once we apply these
corrections, we get directly Ms(V), because the new TRR for
M >-- 6 from 1950 to 1997 (Fig. 3) is fairly constant for the
whole period, and what we have in Figure 3 since 1964 is
precisely Ms(V). The new catalog (with aftershocks and
compound events) is given at the electronic address http://
www.ldc.usb.ve/--ojperez/catalog, including the scalar moment and the moment magnitude (Mw) for each event, assigned according to the procedure described in the next
section.

Scalar M o m e n t (M0) for E v e n t s in the N e w C a t a l o g

The scalar moment (3//o) for each event in the new catalog was assigned according to the following procedure. Figure 4 is an M 0 versus Ms plot for 1407 shallow (h --< 60 kin)
earthquakes with Ms(V) -> 6 (simply Ms hereafter) that occurred in the world from January 1976 to April 1997. Ms is
taken from NEIC's (PDE) catalog and M 0 from Harvard's
CMTS data file. This latter file is electronically available over
the Internet, and the data are regularly published in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors (e.g., Dziewonski et aL, 1987, 1989). From this plot, and using only
those events in the range 6 -< Ms <- 7.5 so that erroneous
calculations induced by saturation problems of Ms for the
largest events are avoided (e.g., Kanamori, 1977), we get a
simple relationship between Ms and M o as follows:
Log(M 0) = (1.33 Ms +_ 0.20)
+ 10.22 +__ 0.30,

M o in N-m.

(1)

Then, from equation (1), we calculate M o for those events

with Ms in the range 6 -< Ms < 7 in the new catalog that
occurred from 1950 to 1975, whose M o is not provided in
Harvard' s CMTS data tile. For those events in the same magnitude range that occurred from 1976 to 1997, we list M 0 as
provided in Harvard's CMTS data file. For the largest shocks
(Ms >- 7), we list the moments compiled by Pacheco and
Sykes (1992) (1950 to 1990) and Harvard's CMTS (1991 to
1997). For a set of 168 events from 1976 to 1997, whose
M 0 is not given in Harvard's data file, we calculated it using
equation (1). Finally, having M0, we calculate Mw for each
event using the formulation given by Hanks and Kanamori
(1979), such that [Mw = (2/3) log (M0) - 10.7] (M 0 in
dyne-cm). This completes the construction of the revised
world seismicity catalog (1950 to 1997; Ms >-- 6; h --< 70
kin) provided in this article. It is worth noting (Fig. 4) that
given the moment magnitude Mw of those very great earth-

340

O.J. Ptrez

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MAGNITUDE

quakes (Mw >- 8.5; from Kanamori, 1977) that have occurred during this century, equation (1) predicts their scalar
moment within a factor of - 2 . Conversely, given their moments, equation (1) predicts their magnitude (Mw) within a
factor of - 0 . 3 .
Discussion and Conclusions
We have constructed a new world seismicity catalog for
strong (Ms >- 6) shallow (h <-- 70 kin) earthquakes that occurred from 1950 to 1997. The catalog was obtained after
removing a series of heterogeneities caused by changes in
instrumentation, reporting and detection capabilities, and the
use of different formulations and criteria to report the parameter "magnitude" by a variety of seismological agencies
throughout time.
For instance (Fig. 2), the increase we found in the TRR
(for M ----6) in 1957 is directly related to the scientific efforts
made since the IGY in 1957 to 1958. On the other hand, the
dramatic TRR decrease since 1964 takes place just when the
new long-period instruments of the WWSSN were installed
and ISC started to report Ms(V). Therefore, this TRR decrease
cannot be attributed to a decrease in the detection and reporting capabilities. On the contrary, one would have rather
expected an increase in the TRR due to the installation of
WWSSN. Thus, under the postulates that the true seismicity
rate for Ms ~ 6 for the whole world should be constant on
a time scale of decades, and equal to the TRR observed since
1969 in NEIC's catalog, we conclude that the magnitudes
reported by ISS from 1950 to 1964 were overestimated by
as much as 0.5 unit, with respect to the Ms(V) calculated by
ISC since 1964 and by NEIC (PDE) since 1969. It is clear
that this overestimation was directly related to changes in
the seismological instrumentation and the use of different
formulations and criteria to calculate the earthquake magnitudes with time and that the events affected were those in
the range 6 ~ M < 7, since the TRR for Ms >-- 7 from 1950
to 1997 (Fig. 1) has been fairly constant with time (Abe,
1981; Prrez and Scholz, 1984; Pacheco and Sykes, 1992).
Why the magnitudes Ms(G) assigned to those events of M

Figure 4. Scalar moment (M0) as a function

of surface-wave magnitude (Ms) for 1407 shallow (h -< 60 kin) shocks with Ms --> 6 that
occurred in the world from January 1976 to
April 1997 (small symbols). Ms is from NEIC's
(PDE) catalog and M0 from Harvard's CMTS
data file. The straight line con'esponds to equation (1) in the text. Larger circles are Mo data
corresponding to the largest (Mw >--8.5) earthquakes occurring this century (from Kanamori,
1977).
>-- 7 from 1950 to 1963 were not as well overestimated with
respect to the Ms(V) calculated since 1964 is unclear to us.
Lienkaemper (1984) and Pacheco and Sykes (1992) conclude that both formulations give similar results for large (M
-> 7) shallow-depth shocks, apparently because the stations
used to develop Ms(V) were previously calibrated with Gutenberg's magnitudes for the larger events.
When the appropriate corrections are made so that a
constant seismicity rate (1950 to 1997; Ms >-- 6; h -< 70 kin)
for the world is obtained, the end product is a catalog that
is uniform in surface-wave magnitude, homogeneous, and
fairly complete at the Ms >- 6 level, listing only events corresponding to this magnitude range. A notable exception is
for the period 1964 to 1968, due to the incompleteness of
the ISC catalog for the period 1964 to 1978 and to the lack
of magnitude data in NEIC's catalog for the years prior to
1969. Since the ISC TRR for 1964 to 1978 (Ms >- 6) is 34
__ 5 EQY and the corresponding NEIC TRR for 1969 to 1997
(equal to the ISC TRR for 1979 to 1994) is --55 + 7 EQY
(Fig. 2), it means that about 315 independent events are
missing from the ISC catalog for 1964 to 1978. A special
effort to find those events is in order, like the one exerted
by Gutenberg and Richter (1954) to find events of magnitude
around 6 for the period 1930 to 1935, specifically for the
years 1964 to 1968, because for the period 1969 to 1978,
the missing events are listed in NEIC's catalog. It is feasible
that although the WWSSN instruments were installed in 1963
to 1964, large numbers of readings of Ms were not made
and reported routinely to standard agencies for a number of
years thereafter. This may well explain the low ISC TRR for
the period 1964 to 1968. Also, NEIC started reporting mb
routinely about 1963 from many stations. Some stations that
formerly had reported Ms routinely may well have ceased
(or eased up on) measuring Ms for the smaller (Ms. ~ 6 + )
events once mb was being reported routinely. Indeed, it was
only later that it was realized that mb saturates and that Ms
needed to be used routinely as well (Anonymous Reviewer,
written comm., 1997).
Recently, Villasefior et al. (1997) report that many socalled normal (h = 33 kin) shallow earthquakes in the ISS

Revised World Seismicity Catalog ( 1 9 5 0 - 1 9 9 7 ) f o r Strong (Ms => 6) Shallow (h <= 70 km) Earthquakes

catalog for the period 1918 to 1938 are upon relocation actually much deeper. Thus, there is always the possibility that
the excess of events with M -- 6 in the ISS catalog (1950 to
1963) might be partially due to wrong assignments of shallow focal depths to actually deeper (h > 70 km) events.
However, an examination of the PDE catalog (1950 to 1997)
for events with M --> 6 (either Ms or mb) indicates that out
of a total of 1547 shocks listed in 1987 to 1997, 24% are
reported as intermediate-depth or deeper (h > 70 km) events
and 76% are shallow (h -< 70 km). This proportion is similar
to the one found for the period 1950 to 1963, which is --30%
of intermediate-depth and deeper events and 70% of shallow
events. This similarity strongly suggests that the excess of
shocks with M --> 6 for 1950 to 1963 is not due to wrong
assignments of focal depths. Also, if we assumed that a significant percentage (say 30% to 50%) of the shallow events
with M --> 6 listed by ISS for the period 1950 to 1963 were
actually intermediate-depth or deeper shocks, then we would
end up having an extraordinary percentage of events with h
> 70 km in comparison with the remaining number of shallower events. This would not be compatible with the fact
that during the period 1987 to 1997, 76% of the shocks with
M --> 6 in the PDE catalog are shallow events, assuming that
the depths assigned are in general correct.
We hope that the revised catalog, yet incomplete for the
time span 1964 to 1968, and surely having some errors in
the Ms assigned for the period 1950 to 1963, will help Earth
science researchers and engineers in their tectonic, earthquake prediction, and engineering studies.
Acknowledgments
I thank my students Aura Vilela and Carlos Rodrfguez for all the hours
they spent doing data analysis in the computer. George Purcaru and Shamita
Das encouraged me to do the work and publish the complete revised catalog. Carmen Rosa took care of the figures. This research was supported
by the Decanato de Investigaci6n y Desarrollo (DID), Simdn Bolivar University, under Grant Number S 1-CAI- 158.

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Department of Earth Sciences
Sim6n Bolivar University
Caracas, Venezuela

Manuscript received 3 December 1997.