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European Strong-Motion Records

We have found European strong-motion records on the following CD-ROMs and Internet-sites:
The CD-ROM published by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in collaboration with the Joint Institute of the Physics of the Earth (Sobolev et al., 1994) contains 149 triaxial record sets from the aftershock sequence of the 1988 Spitak, Armenia earthquake. The data are of limited use, because some of the critical information, provided with the original data, are not stated in the CD-ROM. The original GEOS-data (General Earthquake Observation System developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, Borcherdt et al., 1985) for the 124 acceleration records included on this CD-ROM are available at the USGS-site. In addition, the entire and much larger data set, including 2,000 separate recordings from velocity sensors as well as additional FBA-recordings of the Spitak aftershock sequence also are available at this site.
The CD-ROM published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC, 1996) contains more than 15,000 processed accelerograph records comprising uncorrected and corrected acceleration time histories, response and Fourier spectra, as well as velocity and displacement time histories. Records have been contributed from a number of worldwide agencies. File formats, associated parameters as well as data processing techniques are non-uniform and errors in the database have been found, which make it difficult to search, select and use the data effectively. A database is available online that contains trigger information, station characteristics, and peak ground motion parameters.
The CD-ROM published by the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering in Thessaloniki (ITSAK, 1997) contains 126 uncorrected and corrected time histories recorded between 1980 and 1994 by its strong-motion network installed throughout Greece. The individual records were corrected using three different processing procedures and the data are presented in different file-formats.
All corrected acceleration time histories recorded between 1984 and 1997 with the national strong-motion network of Spain are published on a CD-ROM by Instituto Geografico National (IGN, 1999).
The CD-ROM published by Servizio Sismico Nazionale and Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Ellettrica (SSN/ENEL, 1998) contains 99 uncorrected strong-motion records from the Umbria Marche earthquake sequence of September and October 1997.
The strong-motion databank of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre comprises of a limited number of European strong-motion records, which does not represent all seismic active areas of Europe. The data and associated parameters available on this site were not uniformly processed, estimated and verified but simply extracted from published CD-ROMs or elsewhere. This strong-motion databank is not freely accessible (password required) and the downloading time is relatively high.
All records from the Turkish national strong-motion network are available on an Internet-site. The lack of browser-utilities, incomplete or missing seismological-, site- and instrument-parameters and the low communication-rate make it difficult to download data from this site and use them effectively.
The accelerometric network in the French Alps and Rhone valley operated by the Observatoire de Grenoble consists of more than 30 digital broadband accelerograph stations. A selection of acceleration data and station lists are available in SAC-format and can be downloaded. The datasets are published annually on CD-ROMs.
Some of the records published on these CD-ROMs or Internet-sites are of limited use because critical information such us station- and instrument-location, transducer characteristics or processing history are not provided together with the records. We have found, quite often, station- and instrument-parameters either on the CD-ROMs, Internet-sites, or in publications or bulletins, which did not match with each other. Many of the associated parameters published on a number of Internet-sites are obsolete or even wrong.

The conversion of the time histories and associated parameters to a uniform data format and database system, and the inspection, validation and completion of the data and parameters is time-consuming and requires quite often vast resources.

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