World Seismic Networks and Earthquake Catalogs

This paper is devoted to the review of currently functioning seismological agencies, seismic monitoring networks created, developed and supported by them, as well as earthquake catalogs produced. Particular attention is focused on international and national seismological centers and seismic networks. A historical insight about the first observations made by seismic networks completes the picture. The basic parameters of the main seismic networks and the principles of functioning for seismological centers are considered. The key characteristics of seismic catalogs that determine the criteria for their quality are discussed. The system-analytical approach to solving the urgent problem of creating the most complete and representative earthquake catalogs with a unified magnitude scale by integrating data from international, national and regional catalogs in the studied region is presented.