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Room: 209C

Date: 4/18/2023

Session Time: 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM (local time)

Legacy Seismic Data Collections: The Present State of and Future Outlook for Data from the Past
Legacy seismic data were recorded from the late 19th century until the end of the analogue recording era in the late 20th century. Many of these records are still extant today in film and/or paper formats and cover a significant part of the history of seismology. With these data, scientific questions necessitating long-running data such as the “great” earthquakes of the 1960s, above-ground nuclear tests, the earthquake cycle and the effect of climate change can be investigated. However, finding storage to retain this analogue data, making inroads into scanning and extracting digital waveforms and facilitating accessibility continue to be challenges. Due to the diversity of collections and the records which they hold (e.g., media types, number of stations, local vs. global scope), exchanging information about the ways in which data are organized, stored and/or scanned is a prime opportunity for the community. In this way, experiences with one collection that are relevant to others can be identified, plans for the future can be better developed and a more accurate picture of data available globally can be put together.

This session seeks contributions on the status of archives and preservation efforts from around the world, for example, details on efforts to document, archive, scan, digitize and increase the visibility of these records. We also encourage participation from the non-seismological community, such as those in archival and library science who have experience with collections of large-format paper/photographic documents and digital archiving. Finally, any work using legacy seismic data to address scientific questions will be welcome in this session.

Conveners
Thomas A. Lee, Harvard University (thomasandrewlee@g.harvard.edu)
Allison Bent, Natural Resources Canada (allison.bent@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca)
Paul G. Richards, Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (richards@ldeo.columbia.edu)
Adam Ringler, USGS Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (aringler@usgs.gov)

Oral Presentations