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Abstract

The importance of preserving analog seismic data has been fully acknowledged in the seismological community for years. Now, the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany, has announced a pilot study which aims to estimate the possibility of digitizing all seismic records in Germany. This study is performed by researchers from the Universities of Potsdam and Hamburg who have strong expertise in working with analogue seismic data.There are at least 12 institutions in Germany which store more than one million analog seismic records and corresponding metadata. We have contacted the institutes representatives and have their support for the project. We plan to visit all archives to document their content in a comprehensive catalogue with detailed description of data and metadata.In order to estimate the workload for scanning and digitizing all German archives and for quality control, a test run will be performed. This step includes the scanning and digitizing of a selection of paper seismograms into a digital time-series and scanning of paper bulletins and station books. The seismograms from three stations will be collected for a limited continuous time period. One or two events will be selected to determine earthquake source parameters (e.g., location, magnitude and focal mechanism). As a result, a guidebook with a feasible workflow, recommendations (e.g., for scanning facility, digitization software), and pitfalls (e.g., lacking proper scaling) will be prepared.Finally, we will provide a long-term concept for preservation and digitization of all analogue seismic records and corresponding metadata available in Germany.