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An International Workshop on Tomographic Imaging of 3D Velocity Structures and Accurate Earthquake Location (PAPHOS99) was held at Cyprus, July 5-9, 1999. The Workshop was a continuation of the Shalheveth Freier Workshop on Advanced Methods in Seismic Analysis held at Israel, January 12-15, 1998. The PAPHOS99 workshop was sponsored by IASPEI and organized by the Cyprus Geological Survey (CGS) and the Geophysical Institute of Israel(GII). The purpose of the PAPHOS99 workshop was to bring together academic and governmental scientists to assess the state of our knowledge of 3D Earth structure and earthquake location, to address some basic questions about how we can achieve a better understanding of the fundamental coupling of the source- structure problem, and to determine how can we best apply this information to improve 3D tomographic imaging and seismic event characterization. A particular aim was to provide more accurate location strategies for the benefit of 3D imaging and for regional monitoring under the CTBT. More detailed information on the workshop program can be found on the homepage of the PAPHOS99 workshop (http://www.gii.co.il/paphos99/paphos.html). Proceeedings of the workshop will be published as a special issue of Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors.
The 22nd General Assembly of IUGG and the 30th General Assembly of IASPEI were held at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K., from 18-30 July 1999. The IUGG General Assembly was attended by over 4,000 scientists, more than 500 of whom were affiliated with IASPEI. About 5,700 abstracts were submitted of which 989 were presented in oral and poster sessions of 17 IASPEI-led symposia and workshops. A full report on the General Assembly can be found on the IASPEI Home Page. Major items of business accomplished at the Assembly were: (1) Election of IASPEI officers and appointment of Association Representatives and Commission Chairs for the 1999-2003 period; and (2) Development of the IASPEI scientific program for the 31st General Assembly of IASPEI, to be held jointly with IAGA in Hanoi, Vietnam, 18-30 August 2001.
International Handbook of Earthquake and Seismology - Modern scientific investigations of earthquakes began in the 1880's, and the International Association of Seismology (IAS) was organized in 1901 to promote collaboration of scientists and engineers in studying earthquakes. With rapid advances in the 20th century, many branches of seismology developed and there is not an authoritative reference that summarizes our present knowledge about earthquake and engineering seismology. It is our hope that this Handbook will help to bridge the gap between seismologists and earthquake engineers and will be truly international in scope. The aims for the Handbook are: to summarize the well established facts; to review relevant theories; to survey useful methods and techniques; and to document and archive basic seismic data. It will consist of about 84 chapters grouped into 10 parts, with 4 CD-ROMs containing materials to augment the printed chapters, and including a compilation of seismic data from around the world and a global earthquake database with software for displaying seismicity maps. It is also our desire to prepare an affordable publication. Academic Press will publish the Handbook as a 1,200 page, 8 1/2 by 11-inch case bound volume. It will be published in 2001 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of IAS (the predecessor of IASPEI). Publication of this Handbook is under the auspices of the IASPEI Committee on Education. The Handbook is being edited by Willie Lee, Hiroo Kanamori and Paul C. Jennings, with an editorial advisory board of about 50 people.
New Manual of Seismological Observatory Practice - While there exist good text books and many university curricula on more general or theoretical, research- oriented aspects of seismology there is a lack of job-related education, training and instruction material in the field of observational seismology. Although the last (1979) edition of the Manual of Seismological Observatory Practice (MSOP) is now available on the web, it covers analogue techniques only. Computer and communication technologies, as well as the availability of modern broadband sensors, have revolutionized seismological practice during the last two decades of the 20th century. This necessitates the elaboration of a new MSOP (NMSOP). It is currently under development as a web site. The web-based NMSOP is maintained as continuously up-graded, up-dated and complemented reference source with integrated training modules. This shall be achieved through an open interactive dialog between users and contributors. First contributions are already available. A hard copy version of the NMSOP is planned, complemented by an easy to update loose-leaf collection of job-related worksheets. The systematically structured tutorial body of the manual aims at creating a broader interdisciplinary problem awareness and understanding of the scientific-technical and theoretical fundamentals of seismological observations and their routine analysis, and at the motivation of observatory personnel. It will be complemented by self-explanatory worksheets and exercises with solutions. They provide instructions, relevant formulae, programs, references data and sources needed for proper execution of the most important observatory tasks such as site selection, instrument installation and calibration, seismogram analysis, earthquake location, parameter determination, etc.. Manual chapters and worksheets may be used as training modules for observatory practice.
As part of IASPEI's outreach effort, the publication transfer program of the Committee for Developing Countries makes available basic texts and publications on seismology and related earth sciences to institutions in need. The IASPEI Secretary-General serves as a clearing house for requests and offers. Institutions who have publication needs, as well as those with surplus publications, including back runs of journals, should send a list to the Secretary-General. Requests for payment or reimbursement of reasonable shipping costs can be made to IASPEI.
IASPEI uses this system to broadcast announcements about forthcoming meetings and other information of interest to IASPEI members.
IASPEI continues development of its Home Page on the WorldWideWeb which contains organizational information, a publications list, meeting announcements and Internet connections and other information of interest to IASPEI scientists. The current address for this web site is: http://www.seismo.com/iaspei/
The IASPEI Secretariat with the assistance of Carl Kisslinger (Editor) has published a 26 page Brochure entitled "The International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior: Cooperation for Better Understanding of the Earth". Copies can be obtained from the IASPEI Secretariat.
The IASPEI Committee for Developing Countries circulates biannually from Hyderabad a Newsletter intended to provide a forum for exchanging news and views of geophysical importance among geoscientists, particularly from developing countries. Hard copy versions of this Newsletter are also distributed to those who do not have Internet addresses on the IASPEI Bulk E-Mail System.
Husebye, E.S., Dowla, F.U. (Editors). Special Issue. Recent Advances in Earthquake Monitoring and Seismic Network Operations, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 29th General Assembly in Thessaloniki, Greece, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 113, 1999.
Clauser, C., Lewis, T., Rybach, L. (Editors). Special Issue. Thermal Regimes in the Contimental and Oceanic Lithosphere, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 29th General Assembly in Thessaloniki, Greece, Tectonophysics, v. 306, 1999.
Pavlides, S.B., Pantosi, D., Zhang, P. (Editors). Special Issue. Earthquakes, Paleoseismology and Active Tectonics, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 29th General Assembly in Thessaloniki, Greece, Tectonophysics, v. 308, 1999.
Papadimitriou, P., Vinnik, L., Montagner, J.P. (Editors). Special Issue. Structure in the Lithosphere, Geodynamic Processes and Anisotropy, Proceedings of the IASPEI Symposium held during the 29th General Assembly in Thessaloniki, Greece, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, v. 114, 1999.
Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) - The Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) was launched in 1992 by the International Lithosphere Program (ILP) with the support of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), and endorsed as a demonstration program in the framework of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (UN/IDNDR). GSHAP has now come to an end with the completion of the Global Seismic Hazard Map. The global map combines the effort of more than 500 scientists, with 95 principal authors. It is the most contribution of IASPEI and of the ILP to the IDNDR. The map has been printed by the USGS and a special volume of Annali di Geofisica is also in press, containing all reports and a folded copy of the map. All the results of the program, the regional reports and maps, and the global map can be found on the GSHAP site at http://seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/. The volume and the map are available free of charge, and will be globally distributed. Instructions to order volume and map are on the web.
In 1998 a five-year project under the International Geological Correlation Program (IGCP) of UNESCO, IGCP 428 "Climate and Boreholes", was begun. The project investigates the subsurface temperature anomalies induced by downward diffusing surface temperature variations and constructs models of palaeoclimatic ground temperature histories. The project involves most of the heat flow community and further extends the activities of the IHFC Working Group on Reconstruction of Climate Change from Subsurface Temperature Data. The principal investigators are V. Cermak, H.N. Pollack and C. Clauser. In 1999 IGCP 428 co-sponsored a workshop on "Past Climate Change Inferred from the Underground Temperature Field", 14-17 March 1999, at Sinaia, Romania, at which 18 scientific communications were presented. Further, a project group meeting was arranged as part of the MC02 Symposium "Detection and Attribution of Climate Change" during the 22nd IUGG General Assembly at Birmingham, UK, July 18-30.
IASPEI continues its participation in STEND, an information exchange program aimed at increasing awareness of available technology which is being developed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland. WMO has recently appointed an officer to consider what further action should be taken regarding STEND. WMO is keen to continue its collaboration with seismologists and volcanologists and is seeking suggestions as to how this may best be achieved.
Each software volume of the IASPEI Software Library includes the executable code, examples on floppy diskettes, and printed documentation.
Under the auspices of the Working Group on Personal Computers, a PC shareware library is being published on diskette, including files with short-form manuals of the programs. The Library provides for fast and wide distribution of geophysical programs and utilities, reduced or demonstration versions of geophysical software, and beta-versions of new programs to be included in future volumes of the SSL.
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Last modified:
November 20, 2007
Maintained by: Alice Walker abw@bgs.ac.uk at the British Geological Survey