FAQ

A Beginner's Guide to Retrieving Data from the SCEDC

• Overview
• Getting Event Information
• Getting Station Metadata
• Getting Seismic Waveforms

Overview and Intended Audience

The SCEDC is a seismic data archive that contains waveforms, event data and related products from the Southern California Seismic Network. This data is used by scientists, engineers, first responders and the public. These tutorials are designed for people new to either seismology and/or data access tools at the SCEDC. They will cover the following topics:

Getting Event Information: How to use the catalog search pages to search for an earthquake and find more information on it

Getting Station Metadata: Find a station on the Clickable Station Map and its instrument response.

Getting Seismic Waveforms: Using WebSTP to download a waveform from this station that shows a signal from the event retrieved from the catalog.

There are several ways to access data of the SCEDC archive. These tutorials cover a subset of them. Those who have a background in seismological software, analysis and formats may want to refer to the "Advanced Topics" at the bottom of the page for additional methods.

Advanced Topics

• SCEDC Tools A complete list of tools available to access the SCEDC archive.
• More SCEDC tutorials Additional tutorials contributed by SCEDC developers or forks from contributors.
• Southern California Seismic Network Description of the network, its reporting region and typical station installations