http://info.er.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/neic/1.html (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), a part of the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, is located in Golden, Colorado, 10 miles west of Denver. The NEIC has three main missions. First, the NEIC determins, as rapidly and as accurately as possible, the location and size of all destructuive earthquakes that occur worldwide. The NEIC disseminates this information immediately to concerned national and international agencies, scientists, and the general public. Second, the NEIC collects and provides to scientists and to the public an extensive seismic database that serves as a solid foundation for scientific research, principally through the operation of modern digital national and global seismograph networks and through cooperative international agreements. The NEIC is the national data center and archive for earthquake information. Third, the NEIC pursues an active research program to improve its ability to locate earthquakes and to understand the earthquake mechanism. These efforts are all aimed at mitigating the risks of earthquakes to mankind; and they are made possible by the fine international cooperation that has long characterized the science of seismology.
The NEIC operates a 24-hour-a-day service to determine the location and magnitude of significant earthquakes in the United States and around the world as rapidly and accurately as possible. This information is communicated to federal and state government agencies who are responsible for emergency response, to government public information channels, to national and international news media, to scientific groups (including groups planning aftershock studies), and to private citizens who request information. When a damaging earthquake occurs in a foreign country, the earthquake information is passed to the staffs of the American embassies and consulates in the affected countries and to the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). The NEIC issues rapid reports for those earthquakes which register at least 4.5 on the Richter Scale in the United States, or 6.5 on the Richter Scale (or are known to have caused damage) anywhere else in the world. At the present time, the NEIC staff locates and publishes approximately 15,000 earthquakes on a yearly basis. These are the most important of the many million earthquakes which are estimated to occur each year. The NEIC routinely publishes earthquake data. The NEIC publications are the principal sources of current earthquake information for thousands of seismologists around the world to be used in fundamental research and staff locates and publishes approximately 12,000 earthquakes on a yearly basis. These are the most important of the many million earthquakes which are estimated to occur each year.
The NEIC collects data through the operation of national and global networks, and through cooperative agreements. To enable the detection and location of all felt earthquakes with the U.S., the NEIC is currently deploying the U.S. National Seismograph Network (USNSN). When complete, the USNSN will include about 60 field stations consisting of modern, broadband seismometers, data processors, and satellite antennae that transmit the data to a master earth station at the NEIC. The NEIC also relies on the excellent cooperation of a variety of seismic reporting networks throughout the world to gather data. More than 3,000 stations report data to the NEIC. Some stations report regularly and some report only occasionally or for local events. The NEIC collects non-instrumental reports of the effects of U.S. earthquakes on people and man-made structures and prepares isoseismal maps showing the distribution of intensities in widely felt or damaging shocks.
The data that are collected by the NEIC are published in a variety of formats and publications. The "Quick Epicenter Determinations" (QED), a very preliminary list of earthquakes, is computed daily and is available for computer access by telephone line. The "Preliminary Determination of Epicenters" (PDE) is published and distrbuted weekly to those contributing data to the NEIC. The "PDE, Monthly Listing" is published monthly and is available through the Superintendent of Documents in Washington, D.C. The "Earthquake Data Report" (EDR), also a monthly publication, provides additional and more detailed information for the use of seismologists on a data exchange basis. Other publications include CD-ROM's, maps, and an annual "United States Earthquakes" book. The NEIC publications are the principal sources of current earthquake information for thousands of seismologists around the world to be used in fundamental research and in the evaluation of earthquake hazards.
A wide range of research is also conducted at the NEIC. Investigations range from resolving the internal structure of the Earth to understanding the mechanics of earthquake rupture. These research efforts are intended to improve the data service provided by the NEIC to the scientific community and the general public; and, ultimately, to aid in earthquake hazard mitigation.
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