ISC-EHB: reconstruction of a robust earthquake data set

The Engdahl-van der Hilst-Buland (EHB) Bulletin of hypocentres and associated traveltime residuals was originally developed with procedures described by (Engdahl et al. 1998) and ended in 2008. It is a widely used seismological data set, which is now expanded and reconstructed, partly by exploiting updated procedures at the International Seismological Centre (ISC), to produce the ISC-EHB. The reconstruction begins in the modern period (2000-2013) to which new and more rigorous procedures for event selection, data preparation, processing and relocation are applied. The selection criteria minimize the location bias produced by unmodelled 3-D Earth structure, resulting in events that are relatively well-located in any given region. Depths of the selected events are significantly improved by a more comprehensive review of near station and secondary phase traveltime residuals based on ISC data, especially for the depth phases pP, pwP and sP, as well as by a rigorous review of the event depths in subduction zone cross-sections. The resulting cross-sections and associated maps are shown to provide details of seismicity in subduction zones in much greater detail than previously achievable. The new ISC-EHB data set will be especially useful for global seismicity studies and high-frequency regional and global tomographic inversions.