PNSN Earthquake Catalog Search Help
The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network (PNSN) generates routine earthquake
catalogs for the Pacific Northwest (State of Washington and most of State
of Oregon). The catalogs are usually within a day or so of current time
and start in 1969. There are several hundred seismograph
stations currently operating as part of the PNSN network
(station maps, and listss are available on the
PNSN stations page).
Information on recent earthquakes is available on-line.
The master PNSN catalog is kept in files by year and thus the search routine
can only retrieve data a year at a time.
Output format:
There are currently 3 output formats available from the catalog search.
- Readable catalog format:
This format is an easy-to-read table in a uniform format
containing the basic event information, such as time, epicenter,
depth, magnitude, quality of location (A-very good, D-very poor),
and a possible comment.
This is the most readable output, and should be used for
all preliminary searches.
- Raw UW catalog format: The catalog will be rturned in
UW summary line format.
- HYPO71 catalog format: The returned catalog will be
converted to HYPO71 summary card format.
Date,Time parameters
Date,time parameters are in Universal Coordinated Time (not local time)
and should be specified in the following format:
where:
- yyyy = year (1969-present)
- mm = month (01-12)
- dd = day-of-month(01-31)
- HH = hour (0-23)
- MM = minute (0-59)
The date must be fully specified. The time is optional, and defaults to
midnight if not specified.
Latitude and Longitude parameters
Latitude and Longitude must be specified in decimal degrees.
- Latitude values can range from -90 to 90; however our catalog
is valid only between 42 and 49 north latitude.
- Longitude values can range from 0 to 180 and are in WEST longitude (ie
going west is larger numbers). Our catalog is only valid between
117. and 125 west longitude.
Exclude "TYPES"
Up to four different "TYPES" of events can be excluded from a custom catalog.
These can be used to restrict the catalog to all
other types of events. Up to four check boxes can be set.
On output a list of excluded event types will be shown with
a letter code. The special character "_" is used to indicate regular
earthquakes within the regional network.
Type codes are:
- T - Teleseism. These events are in the catalog; however their locations
are highly inaccurate and their magnitudes are always listed as 0.0.
Their origin times are are given as the time they record on the PNSN network
and NOT their real origin time.
- R - Regional event. These events are located outside the PNSN but within
about 1,000km. Their magnitudes are not computed and are usually listed
as 0.0. Their locations are often not accurate and the PNSN should NOT be
considered the authority on these events; however we do have data for them.
- X - Known explosions. These events have been confirmed to have been
man made explosions or have waveforms and locations just like confirmed
man made explosions.
- P - Probable explosions. These events are probably man made explosions
as determined by wave-form characteristics, time of day and location in
areas known to sometimes have explosions.
- L - Low frequency event. These events have typical volcanic low-frequency
characteristics and are either of a volcanic or glacier origin.
- S - Surface type event. These events have characteristics of surface
events such as rockfall, avalanche, steam explosion, or mudflow. They
are often not located or have poor locations because of their emergent
first arrivals.
- F - Felt event. These events have been reported to the PNSN lab as
having been felt.
- _ (underscore) - Earthquake. This is the de-selection code for regular eathquakes
which have a blank in their "type" column.