New Zealand Seismology and the International Seismological Summary

Summary The value of the I.S.S. to New Zealand seismological research in the past and to some current projects is appraised, and the contribution of New Zealand stations to the Summary reviewed historically. Before the establishment of a local recording network in the late 1930s, the published I.S.S. epicentres are often badly at variance with the felt intensity information, and large residuals are assigned to near stations with good timing. Deep‐focus shocks are usually to the east of the true positions. Reinterpretation of the larger shocks using modem travel‐time tables should yield sufficiently improved positions and depths to be of use in current seismicity studies. During the 1940s, epicentres based on the records of the New Zealand network were included in the I.S.S., but not the individual station readings. These are on file at the Seismological Observatory, Wellington, and should be incorporated in any revision.