🔎 GEM Earthquake Scenario Database

The development of probabilistic seismic risk assessment (PSRA) models requires stress-testing the various components of the models, often through the assessment of damage and losses considering the characteristics of past events¹. In this context, the GEM Foundation and its partners have expanded the OpenQuake scenario damage and loss calculator to use directly USGS ShakeMaps²³⁴, or earthquake data from other providers (e.g., INGV, EFEHR) or the scientific literature. This functionality allows users to generate cross-correlated ground motion fields considering recordings from seismic stations ⁵, and to compute a number of risk metrics based on different rupture solutions and ground motion models, and to compare the results against past observations and damage reports. An overview of the functionalities implemented within the OpenQuake-engine can be found in gem/oq-engine#8317.

✨ Overview

The Earthquake Scenario Database (ESD) aims at providing both earthquake and impact data for users to perform earthquake scenarios using GEM or their own models for validation and verification purposes. This database serves as a complement to the USGS ShakeMap Atlas and AtlasCat. The former resource has ShakeMaps for a comprehensive catalogue of nearly all near-damaging and damaging events worldwide for the past 120 years, and can be used directly for impact assessment within the OpenQuake-engine ⁴. The latter provides aggregate losses for each event separated by cause. The ESD builds upon these sources of data by collecting additional earthquake and impact information, often documented spatially and with greater detail.

The v2023.0.0 release for the GEM's Earthquake Scenario Database is available! 🥳 🚀

This database is open and aims at being a community effort, that enables users to add new events (see contributing guidelines) or to provide additional data to existing entries. We aim to continue expanding the ESD by leveraging on data often collected within the scope of GEM projects, as well as data previously collected as part of the GEM Earthquake Consequences Database.

🗺️ Database coverage

The following events are available in the database, and the global summary of impact data is available in the World folder.

Table with available events

Country	Year	Event_Name	Mw	Depth_(km)	Max_Intensity_(MMI)
Albania	2019	Durres	6.4	22	VIII
Algeria	2003	Boumerdes_2003	6.8	12	IX-X
Australia	1989	Newcastle	5.4	10	VIII
Botswana	2017	Moijabana_2017	6.46	23.5	VIII
Chile	1960	Valdivia_1960	9.5	25	IX
Chile	2010	Maule_2010	8.8	30	VIII
Chile	2014	Iquique_2014	8.2	38.9	VIII
Chile	2015	Illapel_2015	8.3	22.44	VIII
Colombia	1983	Popayán_1983	5.6	15	VIII
Colombia	1994	Cacua_1994	6.8	10	IX
Colombia	1999	Armenia_1999	6.1	15	IX
Colombia	2004	Pizarro_2004	7.2	15	VIII
Colombia	2008	Quetame_2008	5.9	10	VII
Costa Rica	1991	Limon	7.6	10	VIII
Costa Rica	2009	Cinchona	6.2	4.6	IX
Costa Rica	2012	Nicoya	7.6	15.4	VII
Costa Rica	2017	Puntarenas_2017	6.5	22	VIII
Croatia	2020	Zagreb_2020	5.3	10	VIII
Croatia	2020	Petrijna_2020	6.4	10	IX
Cyprus	1996	Cyprus	6.8	33	VI
Ecuador	2016	Pedernales_2016	7.8	17	IX
Egypt	1992	Cairo_1992	5.8	21.5	VIII
El Salvador	2001	San Miguel_2001	7.6	39	VIII
El Salvador	2001	San Salvador_2001	6.6	13	VIII
Greece	1981	GulfofCorinth_1981	6.7	33	IX
Greece	1981	GulfofCorinth_1981	6.4	33	IX
Greece	1981	GulfofCorinth_1981	6.7	33	IX
Greece	1986	Kalamata_1986	6	11.2	X
Greece	1988	Elia_1988	5.9	25.2	VII
Greece	1995	Aigio_1995	6.5	14.2	VIII
Greece	1995	KozaniGrevena_1995	6.6	14	VIII
Greece	1999	Athens_1999	6	10	IX
Greece	2014	Kefalonia_2014	6.1	8	VIII
Greece	2014	Kefalonia_2014	6	5	VII
Greece	2014	Kefalonia_2014	6.1	8	VII
Greece	2015	Lefkada_2015	6.5	11	VIII
Greece	2017	AegeanSea_2017	6.3	12	VII
Greece	2020	AegeanSea_2020	7	21	VIII
Haiti	2010	Haiti	7	13	IX
Haiti	2021	Haiti	7.2	10	VIII
Iceland	2000	Iceland	6.5	10	VIII
Iceland	2000	Iceland_2000	6.5	10	IX
Iceland	2008	Iceland_2008	6.3	9	VIII
India	2011	Sikkim_2011	6.9	50	VIII
Indonesia	2006	Yogyakarta	6.4	12.5	VIII
Indonesia	2009	Padang	7.6	81	VIII
Iran	1978	Tabas	7.3	33	IX
Iran	1990	Manjil-Rudbar	7.4	18.5	IX
Iran	1997	Qayen	7.2	10	IX
Iran	1997	Golestan	6.1	10	VIII
Iran	2003	Bam	6.6	10	IX
Iran	2005	Zarand	6.5	14	VIII
Iran	2012	Ahar-Varzaghan	6.4	11	VII
Iran	2012	Ahar-Varzaghan	6.2	12	VIII
Iran	2012	Ahar-Varzaghan	6.4	11	VII
Iran	2017	Sarpole-Zahab	7.3	18.1	IX
Italy	1980	Irpinia_1980	6.9	10	X
Italy	1990	Augusta_1990	5.6	11.1	VIII
Italy	1997	UmbriaMarche_1997	5.7	10	X
Italy	1997	UmbriaMarche_1997	5.5	10	VII
Italy	1997	UmbriaMarche_1997	6	10	VIII
Italy	1997	UmbriaMarche_1997	5.7	10	VIII
Italy	2002	Molise_2002	5.9	10	VII
Italy	2002	Molise_2002	5.8	10	VII
Italy	2002	Molise_2002	5.9	10	VIII
Italy	2004	Gardone_2004	5.1	17.2	VIII
Italy	2009	Laquila_2009	6.3	8.8	VIII
Italy	2009	Laquila_2009	5.5	15.1	VI
Italy	2009	Laquila_2009	6.3	8.8	X
Italy	2012	EmiliaRomagna_2012	6	6.3	VIII
Italy	2012	EmiliaRomagna_2012	5.8	10.2	VIII
Italy	2012	EmiliaRomagna_2012	6	6.3	VIII
Italy	2016	CentralItaly_2016	6.1	10	VIII
Italy	2016	CentralItaly_2016	6.2	4.44	IX
Italy	2016	CentralItaly	6.6	4.44	IX
Italy	2016	CentralItaly_2016	6.6	8	IX
Italy	2017	CentralItaly_2017	5.7	7	VII
Japan	1995	Kobe_1995	6.9	21.9	IX
Japan	2011	Tōhoku_2011	9.1	29	VIII
Japan	2016	Kumamoto_2016	7	10	IX
Japan	2018	Osaka_2018	5.5	10.3	VIII
Japan	2018	HokkaidoEasternIburi_2018	6.6	35	X
Japan	2019	Yamagata_2019	6.4	12	VII
Mexico	1985	Mexico_Michoacan	8.1	15	VII
Mexico	1999	Oaxaca_1999	7.4	39	VIII
Mexico	2017	Chiapas_2017	8.2	45.9	VII
Mexico	2017	Puebla_2017	7.1	51.2	VIII
Mexico	2021	Guerrero_2021	7.1	10	VIII
Mexico	2020	Oaxaca_2020	7.4	22.6	VIII
Morocco	2004	AlHoceima_2004	6.3	12.2	IX
Nepal	2015	Gorkha_2015	7.8	8.22	IX
Netherlands	1992	Roermond_1992	5.4	21.2	VIII
New_Zealand	2010	Canterbury_2010	7	12	VIII
New_Zealand	2011	Christchurch_2011	6.1	5.9	IX
Pakistan	2005	Kashmir	7.6	26	IX
Peru	2007	Pisco_2007	7.9	40	VIII
Romania	1990	Vrancea_1990	6.3	88.2	V
Romania	1990	Vrancea_1990	7	89.3	VIII
Romania	1990	Vrancea_1990	7	89.3	VIII
Serbia	2010	Kraljevo	5.5	0.9	VI
Spain	2011	Lorca_2011	5.1	1	VI
Tanzania	2016	Bukoba_2016	5.9	40	VII
Turkey	1992	Erzincan	6.7	27.2	VIII
Turkey	1995	Dinar	6.4	33	VIII
Turkey	1998	AdanaCeyhan_1998	6.3	33	IV
Turkey	1999	Duzce_1999	7.2	10	IX
Turkey	1999	Izmit	7.6	17	X
Turkey	2011	Van_2011	7.1	18	VIII
Turkey	2023	CentralTurkey_2023	7.8	10	XII

🚀 Model versions

Each version of the archive that is released can be accessed by changing from the main branch to the tag of a given version. The main branch could contain the work-in-progress of the next version of the model.

Version	Release Notes
v2023.0.0	First release with 100 earthquake scenario events.

🌟 Contributors

The authors are grateful for the input from dozens of collaborators.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

🤔 Frequently asked questions

How to contribute?

You can follow the instructions indicated in the contributing guidelines.

Which version am I seeing? How to change the version?

By default, you will see the files in the repository in the main branch. Each version of the model that is released can be accessed is marked with a tag. By changing the tag version at the top of the repository, you can change see the files for a given version.

Note that the main branch could contain the work-in-progress of the next version of the model.

How do I download the data for a given version?

For each version, a related zip file is available in the release section.

References

Footnotes

1. Villar-Vega, M., Silva, V. (2017). Assessment of earthquake damage considering the characteristics of past events in South America. Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics, 99:86-96. ↩

2. Silva V, Horspool N (2019). Combining USGS ShakeMaps and the OpenQuake-engine for damage and loss assessment. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics. 48(6):634-652. ↩

3. Worden, C. B., Thompson, E. M., Hearne, M. G., & Wald, D. J. (2020). ShakeMap Manual Online: technical manual, user’s guide, and software guide, U. S. Geological Survey. URL: http://usgs.github.io/shakemap/. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5066/F7D21VPQ. ↩

4. Wald, D. J., Worden, C. B., Thompson, E. M., & Hearne, M. G. (2022). ShakeMap operations, policies, and procedures. Earthquake Spectra, 38(1), 756–777. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/87552930211030298. ↩ ↩²

5. Engler, D. T., Worden, C. B., Thompson, E. M., & Jaiswal, K. S. (2022). Partitioning Ground Motion Uncertainty When Conditioned on Station Data. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 112(2), 1060–1079. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210177. ↩