Historical Seismograms - Evidence from the AD 2000 Izu Islands ...

3 74 Dale P. Glover and Herbert MeyersIn 1982, a workshop on historical seismograms was convened in Tokyo, Japan, bythe IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group on Historical Seismograms. The workshopemphasized collecting seismograms from Asia, Australia, and the Oceania area.A second workshop was held by the IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group on HistoricalSeismograms at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics XVIIIGeneral Assembly at Hamburg, FRG, on August 18-19, 1983. The workshop wasorganized to discuss the status of historical seismological data from Latin Americaand Europe, to reaffirm prior resolutions, and to consider additional ones. Thename of the working group was changed to IASPEI/UNESCO Working Group onHistorical Seismograms and Earthquakes.In response to these resolutions, World Data Center-A for Solid Earth Geophysicshas been engaged since mid-1979 in collecting, microfilming, and archiving historicalseismograms (dated prior to 1963) fiom selected stations and earthquakes worldwide,and has been encouraging and coordinating work done elsewhere. A groupof stations was selected for which the entire chronological file of seismograms wasfilmed. Another group of stations was also chosen for filming the records of over2,000 significant earthquakes (see Glover and Meyers, 1982).The primary funding and support for the project has been provided by theU.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center(NGDC). Supplemental funding has come from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC), the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO), and the Pan American Institute for Geography and History (PAIGH).2. Current StatusThe historical seismogram archive at WDC-A now contains over a half-millionseismogram copies on 16- and 35-mm microfilm. An important collection of seismogramcopies from the Hongo and Abuyama, Japan, observatories dating backto 1899 has recently been added to the archive. Seismograms from the stations atSt. Louis, Missouri; Burlington, Vermont; and Mt. Hamilton (Lick) and Pasadena,California, have also been added during the past 2 years.A camera was sent to the USSR about 2 years ago to film the records fromnine stations. To date, seismograms from six of the stations have been receivedand more are expected in the near future. A camera has also been sent to theHelwan Observatory in Egypt and filming has started. Another camera was sentto the Regional Center for Seismology for South America (CERESIS) to film SouthAmerican records. Copies of seismograms previously filmed by CERESIS have beenreceived for some stations in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.WDC-A is now filming the seismograms from the Baguio, Philippine Islands,station for the years 1952-62. Unfortunately, the records from earlier years weredestroyed during World War 11. WDC-A is also planning to film the historicalseismograms from the Buffalo, New York (Canisius College) station.Table 1 shows the present status of the historical seismogram film archive, andFigure 1 is a map showing locations of the seismograph stations that have furnishedhistorical seismograms to WDC-A. A more detailed inventory is available fromWorld Data Center-A for Solid Earth Geophysics (Glover et al., 1985).