Reference · built on requestCommons signalEarth, seismic & volcanic

ISC Bulletin

Global earthquake bulletin, event catalogue, arrivals, and focal mechanisms from the International Seismological Centre.

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About

The International Seismological Centre compiles the ISC Bulletin from data contributed by seismological agencies around the world, covering 1900 to the present. Four URL-based web services at isc.ac.uk return bulletin events in QuakeML or ISF, an event catalogue in CATQuakeML or CATCSV, station arrivals in QuakeML, CSV, or IMS1.0, and focal mechanism solutions in FMQuakeML or FMCSV. Each accepts request=COMPREHENSIVE for the full bulletin or request=REVIEWED for the subset checked by ISC analysts.

Through Fibric you pull reviewed history for the regions around your sites and let operators build evidence, benchmarks, and root-cause records for your approval.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from ISC Bulletin and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Bulletin events through web-db-run with out_format=QuakeML or ISF and request=COMPREHENSIVE or REVIEWED
  • Event catalogue with one line per event through out_format=CATQuakeML or CATCSV
  • Station arrivals through request=STNARRIVALS in QuakeML, CSV, or IMS1.0, filtered by phaselist and stnsearch
  • Focal mechanism solutions in FMQuakeML or FMCSV: origin, scalar moment, moment tensor, nodal planes, principal axes
  • Search shapes GLOBAL, RECT, CIRC, FE (Flinn-Engdahl), and POLY with depth, magnitude, and defining-phase filters
  • Magnitude filters by req_mag_type (MB, MS, MW, ML, MD) and req_mag_agcy, including prime

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Assemble seismic evidence for a compliance file

    Compliance Evidence pulls reviewed events within a radius of a site for the audit period and attaches the CATCSV extract, with the ISC citation, to the evidence packet for your sign-off.

    With Compliance Evidence

  • Check a past incident against the reviewed record

    Root Cause queries the reviewed bulletin for the hour around an equipment failure and proposes adding matching events, with magnitude and depth, to the incident record.

    With Root Cause

  • Benchmark sites by seismic history

    Site Benchmark counts reviewed events by magnitude band around each site over the same window and proposes a ranked comparison for your review.

    With Site Benchmark

Requirements

  • A search shape and a full start and end date and time; year values run from 1900
  • A citation of the ISC Bulletin wherever retrieved data is used, including commercial use
  • Tolerance for a reviewed record that trails real time by about 24 months
Authentication
No key or account. Services are plain HTTP GET requests to www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/web-db-run built from documented parameters.

Limits

  • The Reviewed ISC Bulletin is typically 24 months behind real-time, so recent events are unreviewed
  • include_phases=on adds arrival data and increases output size; the pages state no size or rate limit
  • The base URL is HTTP, and out_format values differ per service and are not interchangeable
  • Monthly ISF or PDF downloads and FTP cover bulk history outside the web services

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request ISC Bulletin ↗

Questions and answers

How far behind real time is the reviewed bulletin?
The ISC states the Reviewed ISC Bulletin is typically 24 months behind real-time and was up to 2024-09-01 when this listing was written. The ISC Bulletin holds preliminary data ahead of review; choose with request=REVIEWED or request=COMPREHENSIVE.
Which output formats do the four services return?
Bulletin search: QuakeML or ISF. Event catalogue: CATQuakeML or CATCSV. Arrivals: QuakeML, CSV, or IMS1.0. Focal mechanisms: FMQuakeML or FMCSV. The ISC recommends the QuakeML variants for web services.
Is citation required?
Yes. The ISC asks that any retrieval be cited, by academic or commercial organisations as well as individuals, as International Seismological Centre (2026), On-line Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.31905/D808B830.
Ask about ISC Bulletin

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by International Seismological Centre (isc.ac.uk). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy