Aussie seismic data set to rock the world
AusPass team left to right: Dr Herb McQueen, Prof Malcolm Sambridge, Dr Julia Pfeffer, As Prof Meghan Miller, Armando Arcidiaco, Dr Michelle Salmon, Dr Julian Byrne and Dr Sebastien Allgeyer. Image: Dr Michelle Salmon.
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) are thrilled to announce that AusPass has just become the first International Federation of Digital Seismograph Network (FDSN) data centre in Oceania. Scientists can now utilise extensive Australian seismology datasets from anywhere in the world.
For more than 30 years, researchers have been scanning deep into the Australian plate to understand how it has formed, which parts are still active (where earthquakes exist), and where natural resources might be from these data.
All the while, they have been working towards providing seismic data collected on these often remote expeditions to researchers nationally in a findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) format.
In late 2018, the team realised an important project milestone: gathering all Australian seismic data, and making it available to the Australian research community via the AusPass data centre. Less than six months later, their hard work was recognised by FDSN and AusPass was added to the list of FDSN data centres.
Dr Julia Pfeffer processes seismic data collected in the field at ANU. Image: Dr Michelle Salmon.
Showing a “record section” of data from ANU’s 25 Australian Seismometers in Schools stations that recorded the recent M7.2 earthquake that occurred north-east of New Zealand on 16 June 2019. These data can be downloaded from AusPass. Image: Dr Sebastien Allgeyer.
ANU researcher and AuScope Earth Imaging leader, As Prof Meghan Miller said:
“Now that AusPass has become a Federated Center through FDSN, we are able to provide access to both legacy and new seismic data to researchers across the world in a universal standard format with modern, standardized tools. This is vital for advancing our understanding of global seismic activity and the Earth sciences.”
And team member, Dr Michelle Salmon is excited the cumulative national and then international milestones:
“I hope that the new AusPass Data Centre will safeguard the data many people have worked hard to collect for the future and I can’t wait to see what new and exciting research results from this!”
As major international scientific journals and publishers move towards requiring research data to be housed in a FAIR data repository prior to publishing papers, the development of AusPASS represents a significant step for the Australian seismological community. AuScope is a signatory to the COPDESS Enabling FAIR Data Commitment Statement and is working towards providing mechanisms for delivering FAIR data for the Australian research community, across all geoscience disciplines.
Background
AusPass is a service dedicated to the acquisition, management and distribution of passive seismological data in Australia. Extensive fieldwork projects are conducted across the country, organized in seismic arrays (i.e. groups of seismic stations).
FDSN is the International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks, it is a global organization that aims to foster cooperation across the seismological community to advance Earth science. Becoming a FDSN datacentre means that AusPass has gained international recognition as a seismic data centre. This will mean that our data will be more visible and accessible to both the Australian and international research and hazard monitoring community.
AUTHORS
This article was produced by Jo Condon at AuScope, together with Dr Michelle Salmon, As Prof Meghan Miller and
Dr Sebastien Allgeyer at ANU.
ENQUIRIES
If you have digital seismic data hiding away on disks or tapes, or have an enquiry about this news story,
please get in touch with Dr Michelle Salmon and/or As Prof Meghan Miller.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
AuScope supports the ANU Seismology group through NCRIS investment in observational and data infrastructure related to the AusPASS project.
QUICK LINKS
AusPass Data Centre
FDSN data centres