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SEISMICITY: ZMAP
Stefan Wiemer
Institute of Geophysics
S E I S M O L O G I S T ETH Hoenggerberg
CH-8093, Zurich
ELECTRONIC SEISMOLOGIST
Switzerland
Telephone +41 633 6625
stefan@seismo.ifg.ethz.ch
Steve Malone Introduction
E-mail: steve@geophys.washington.edu Earthquake catalogs are probably the most fundamental
Geophyics, Box 351650 products of seismology and remain arguably the most useful
University of Washington for tectonic studies. Modern seismograph networks can locate
Seattle, WA 98195 up to 100,000 earthquakes annually, providing a continuous
Telephone: (206) 685-3811 and sometime overwhelming stream of data. ZMAP is a set of
Fax: (206) 543-0489 tools driven by a graphical user interface (GUI), designed to
help seismologists analyze catalog data. ZMAP is primarily a
The Electronic Seismologist (ES) has been known to actually research tool suited to the evaluation of catalog quality and to
do some research in the field of seismology from time to addressing specific hypotheses; however, it can also be useful
time. As an operator of a seismic monitoring network the in routine network operations. Roughly 100 scientists world-
research done often is related to the seismicity of the moni- wide have used the software at least occasionally. About 30
tored region. Detecting changes or trends in seismicity is rel- peer-reviewed publications have made use of ZMAP. A com-
evant to earthquake and volcano hazards; but are the trends prehensive listing of ZMAP features is given in Table 1.
detected real or only an artifact of changes in the network ZMAP was first published in 1994 and has continued to
operating parameters? Because all seismic networks evolve, grow over the past seven years. Concurrent with this article,
change staff, change software and hardware, there is always we are releasing ZMAP v. 6, which contains numerous bug
the nagging feeling, if not outright knowledge, that interest- fixes and a few new features, as well an updated manual.
ing patterns in the catalog reflect network changes rather This paper illustrates some of the various capabilities
than changes in the Earth. How can one tell the difference? and applications of ZMAP by summarizing a few case studies
The ES is happy to report that there is a handy-dandy that have been published previously. The examples include
software package ideally suited to answering exactly this (1) catalog quality assessment and data exploration; (2) map-
question (and many others). ZMAP, developed by Stefan ping b values beneath a volcano to infer information about
Wiemer, allows the user to examine an earthquake catalog the location of magma; (3) estimating seismicity rate changes
from many different angles. Not only does it include the tra- caused by a large earthquake; (4) stress-tensor inversion on a
ditional map, cross-section, and time sequence parameters, grid to measure the heterogeneity of a stress field; and (5)
but also several others, such as event size and mechanism. mapping the magnitude of complete reporting.
These can be combined in interesting ways to present the
user with different views into the data. Considerable seis- The Philosophy of ZMAP
mological acumen lies behind the use and presentation of Matlab-based, open-source code. ZMAP is written in
these parameters, which helps the user get the most out of Mathworks (http://www.mathworks.com) commercial soft-
the analyzed catalog. ZMAP is fairly intuitive to use and pro- ware language, Matlab, a package widely used among
duces attractive output. In fact, the ES actually has fun researchers in the natural sciences. Users must purchase a
playing with it and gets useful results besides. Perhaps one Matlab license to run ZMAP. Although ZMAP is written in
of the best ways to get a sense of how ZMAP might be used Matlab, no knowledge of the Matlab language is needed
is to take a tour of case studies. The following includes many since ZMAP is GUI-driven. The ZMAP code is, however,
examples, and if theyre not enough there are a slew of refer- open, and users are welcome to modify or supplement as
ences where one can find more. In his traditional groveling desired by diving into the guts of the numerous scripts
way the ES has prevailed on Stefan Wiemer to write this (about 80,000 lines of native code in 600 scripts). ZMAP
months column for him. should run on all platforms supported by Matlab. We have
tested it under Unix, Linux, PC, DEC ALPHA, and Macin-
tosh computers (Caveat: Some code, such as stress-tensor
inversions, requires the compilation of external FORTRAN
or C programs).
Interactive data exploration. ZMAP combines many stan- tions, and the magnitude of completeness. In any map, the
dard and advanced seismological analysis tools, aspiring to user can interactively view the source of the parameter under
make data exploration easier and more efficient. The user investigation (e.g., a frequency-magnitude plot) and com-
can quickly select subsets in space, time, and magnitude, pare neighboring volumes.
plot histograms, compute b or p values, compare the fre- Maps are computed on an interactively defined grid that
quency-magnitude distributions of different time periods generally excludes low-seismicity areas (Figure 2B). There are
and locations, compare daytime versus nighttime activity, two methods programmed into ZMAP to map seismicity:
compute the fractal dimension of hypocenters, create cross- using either constant radii or a constant number of samples.
sections, overlay topography, compute stress-tensor inver- The first method produces maps with a continuous spatial
sions, and much more (Table 1). The ability to apply and resolution but varying sample sizes. Consequently, uncer-
combine these analysis tools within one software platform tainties can vary significantly in space. A constant sample
helps users explore or mine their data in detail. A typical size, on the other hand, results in more homogeneous uncer-
snapshot of some ZMAP windows is shown in Figure 1. tainties, but the resolution, which is inversely proportional
to the density of earthquakes, will vary across the region of
Mapping seismicity parameters. Identifying and evaluating interest. This is demonstrated in Figure 2B, where we plot a
spatial and temporal variations in seismicity is one of the pri- cross-sectional view of the hypocenters beneath Mt. St.
mary research objectives of ZMAP. By creating dense spatial Helens. Circles plotted at selected nodes indicate the vol-
grids and sampling overlapping volumes of circular (2D) or umes sampled around each particular node. The grid spacing
spherical shape (3D), users can map such parameters as seis- is generally chosen such that the volumes overlap signifi-
micity rate changes, b values, p values, stress-tensor orienta- cantly, providing a natural smoothing of the results.
3
Depth [km]
9
0.5 1 1.5 2 3 4
b-value Distance [km]
Figure 2. (A) The b value as a function of depth at Mount St. Helens. The seismicity for the period 19871995 with M > 0.3 was analyzed, using a
sliding window of 100 earthquakes. Vertical bars indicate the uncertainty in b, horizontal bars the depth range sampled. (B) Cross-sectional view (north-
south) through Mount St. Helens. Crosses mark the locations of nodes of an interactively selected grid (spaced at 0.2 0.2 km) used to compute the b-
value image shown in (C). For selected nodes, the circles mark the volumes sampled, each containing N = 100 earthquakes. (C) Image of the b-value dis-
tribution underneath Mount St. Helens, computed using the grid shown in (B). Dark colors indicate low b values.
Sample Applications tures, b-value curves, and maps of rate changes one can
The sample applications shown below are intended to illus- attempt to unravel the reporting history of earthquake cata-
trate some of the capabilities of ZMAP. The images shown logs as a function of space and time.
were all created with ZMAP, edited manually using the Mat- A simple example of network quality assessment is
lab edit capabilities, and then imported as JPEG files or shown in Figure 1. The cumulative number of events along
Windows metafiles into PowerPoint to be arranged on a the creeping section of the San Andreas Fault north of Park-
page. The online help (http://www.seismo.ethz.ch/staff/ste- field (0 < M < 1.2) indicates a decrease in the rate of small
fan/) discusses in detail how each analysis was performed. earthquakes around 1995. The cumulative and noncumula-
Each case study is taken from published work that discusses tive number of events as a function of magnitude is com-
the science and interpretation in detail. pared for two periods (19901995 and 19952000). This
plot reveals that the number of events with M < 1.2 dropped
Assessing Catalog Homogeneity and Interactive Data by about 65% in the latter period, whereas no change is
Exploration observed for larger earthquakes. The simplest explanation of
ZMAP can be used to investigate or monitor the reporting this pattern is that there was a change in the network config-
history and health of a seismic network. The user can address uration or processing strategy which decreased the detection
questions such as: Did the detection threshold change in a ability of the CALNET network in the creeping section after
particular area at a certain time? Did the meaning of magni- 1995.
tude change? A long list of man-made changes in earthquake
catalogs has by now been documented (Habermann, 1983, The b Value beneath Mount St. Helens
1986, 1987, 1991; Wyss and Toya, 2000; Zuiga and ZMAP is frequently used to facilitate spatial mapping of the
Wiemer, 1999; Zuiga and Wyss, 1995). These changes in b value in various seismotectonic regimes. The b value,
the reporting rate can be introduced by modifications to the defined as log10N = a bM, where N is the cumulative num-
network and can either mask or mimic natural changes in ber of earthquakes, and a and b are constants related to the
the seismicity. Using GENAS (investigation of rate changes activity and earthquake size distribution, respectively
as a function of magnitude threshold), magnitude signa- (Gutenberg and Richter, 1944; Ishimoto and Iida, 1939),
Plate 1. (A) Left: Cross-section view through Mount St. Helens, overlain by topography. The orientation of the cross-section is shown in the inset at
lower left. Hypocenters are color-coded by depth; symbol size indicates magnitude. Right: Three-dimensional image of the b values beneath Mount St.
Helens, based on the seismicity from 19871995. Red colors indicate high b values. Horizontal planes are drawn at 8 and 3 km depths. (B) Perspective
view of southern California, centered on the Landers region. Colors map the change in the seismicity rate between the periods 19851992.48 and 1992.5
1999.7. Red colors, or negative z values, indicate an increase in the seismicity rate in the latter periods and vice versa. Triangles mark the epicenters of
the Landers, Big Bear, and Hector Mine main shocks. (C) Map of southern California, centered on the Landers region. Bars indicate the orientation of the
stress field obtained by inverting the 100 focal mechanisms nearest to each node of a grid spaced 2 2 km. The period investigated is 19922000. Stars
mark the hypocenters of the 1992 Landers and 1999 Hector Mine main shocks. The variance of the individual stress tensor inversions is color-coded, with
blue to purple colors indicating high variance, hence a heterogeneous stress field. The two insets show individual stress-tensor inversions and their
uncertainties, obtained using a bootstrap method (yellow: 1; red: 2; blue: 3). (D) Map of the western U.S.; the magnitude of complete reporting, Mc,
computed by measuring the deviation from an assumed power law, is color-coed. The inset shows the frequency-magnitude plots for two subvolumes
marked A and B.
Hector Mine
Big Bear
N
Rate
decrease
Landers
Z-value
Rate
increase
800
700
Cumulative Number
b = 0.77 0.17
600
10 1
500
400
300
b =-1.82 +/- 0.18
200
10 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
100
Magnitude
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Figure 3. Comparison of the cumulative frequency-magnitude distri-
bution for shallow earthquakes at Mount St. Helens (filled circles) and for Time in years
the depth range 23 km (open squares). The probability that the two sam-
Figure 4. Cumulative number of earthquakes above M 1.7 south of the
ples come from the same population is about 1.410, based on Utsus
Hector Mine hypocenter. In this volume, the seismicity rate dropped dras-
(1992) test.
tically after the 1992 Landers earthquake. The thin line indicates the signif-
icance of rate changes, measured using the z value.
study region by spatially mapping the daytime to nighttime
ratio of events. A significantly enhanced ratio is indicative of
decreased seismicity matches qualitatively the predicted rate
quarry blast contamination that often remains in the data
changes caused by the combined static and dynamic stress
regardless of the network operators efforts (Wiemer and
changes predicted for the Landers rupture (Stein et al.,
Baer, 2000). We identify a number of explosion-prone
1992). In order to establish a significant rate decrease, it is
regions, which we exclude. By studying the homogeneity of
generally necessary to compare observations for several years.
reporting as a function of time and magnitude, we search for
artificial rate changes in the data and the suitable overall Mc
Stress Tensor Inversions
cut-off. Finally we settle for a data set for the period 1985
In addition to hypocenter information, ZMAP can be used
1999.8 (before the Hector Mine earthquake) with an overall
to analyze focal mechanism data either by analyzing the
Mc of 1.7. This data set is then declustered using Reasen-
cumulative misfit of a set of focal mechanisms to a given
bergs (1985) approach.
stress tensor (Lu and Wyss, 1996; Lu et al., 1997; Wyss and
We spatially map the remaining seismicity rate changes,
Lu, 1995), or by computing inversions for the best-fitting
comparing the periods 19851992.48 and 1992.61999.8,
stress tensor. Two inversion programs are called from ZMAP,
using constant sample volumes of 20 km radius and a grid
Michaels (Michael, 1984, 1987a, 1987b, 1991; Michael et
spacing of 5 km. Two different statistical functions have been
al.) and Gepharts (Gephart and Forsyth, 1984; Gephart,
implemented in ZMAP to measure the significance of rate
1990a; Gephart, 1990b). ZMAP allows the computation of
change: z values (Habermann, 1981, 1988) and values
individual stress-tensor inversions, stress tensor as a function
(Matthews and Reasenberg, 1988; Reasenberg and Simpson,
of time and depth, and inversions on a grid in either map
1992). A map of rate changes measured by z is shown in
view of cross-section (using Michaels method only).
Plate 1B. Red colors signify rate increases, blue colors rate
An example application, again for southern California,
decreases. The map is wrapped on top of the GTOPO30
is shown in Plate 1C. We use the relocated set of focal mech-
topography; this is possible in ZMAP only when the Matlab
anisms from 1992.482000.5 by Hauksson (2000), with a
mapping toolbox is available. We can interactively select cir-
solution misfit < 0.1. First we create a grid with a 2 2 km
cular or polygonal volumes from the map and view the
spacing, excluding areas of low seismicity. The nearest 100
cumulative number of events as a function of time and the z
earthquakes to each node are sampled and their focal mech-
values that measure rate changes (Figure 4).
anisms inverted using Michaels approach. The resulting
The pattern of rate change mapped by this technique is
directions of the principal stress axes, 1, are plotted as lines
quite remarkable, since it reveals long-range (> 100 km) and
on a map underlain by topography. We further color-code
long-duration (> 7 years) rate changes associated with the
the variance of the resulting inversion at each node. Blue to
1992 Landers main shock. The pattern of increased and
purple colors indicate a high variance (i.e., heterogeneous
From the responses from the 100+ scientists using ZMAP, it REFERENCES
is clear that, although designed to work on any Matlab-sup-
ported platform, some users experience problems while run- Bender, B. and D. M. Perkins (1987). SEISRISK III: A computer pro-
ning various functions. Others become frustrated with the gram for seismic hazard estimation, U.S. Geological Survey Bulle-
tin 1772, 20 pp.
variable robustness of certain features of ZMAP and the