The China Seismological Reference Model Working Group (hereinafter referred to as the “Working Group”) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) held a working meeting on June 29, 2016, to summarize the current status and objectives of the reference model, and to define the rules for the establishment of the reference model. Dr. Fuyun Wang, Director of the Geophysical Exploration Center of the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), and Dr. Yanlu Lu, Director of the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) (commissioned by Dr. Huaiwen Pan, Director of CENC), were invited to participate in the meeting.

1) Objective and status

The content of the “China Seismological Reference Model” includes:

1. Reference model of the crustal seismic structure (velocity, attenuation, anisotropy, and crustal thickness) in China
2. Reference model of the upper mantle seismic structure (velocity, attenuation, and anisotropy) in China
3. Upper mantle discontinuity model in China

At present, the distribution of seismic stations in China has been relatively dense. The station coverage in many regions has surpassed that of the United States, such as the North-South Seismic Zone and North China. Researchers in China have also conducted a lot of research in different regions of China, have gained a more systematic understanding of the crust and mantle structure, and have formed a team with considerable research strength. The working group believes that the time is ripe to build a reference model.

The construction of the reference model is not a patchwork of various models. The reference model must be a self-consistent model constrained by various data at the same time, and must also stand the verification of Seismological data. Therefore, the final construction of the model must be a top-down process by integrating various data simultaneously, and its final construction process must be a process of re-integrating and analyzing the data and joint constraints. At the same time, the model needs to be updated from time to time with the increase in seismic data and the development of seismological methods. From these two considerations, the construction of the reference model needs to accumulate and retain various original materials.

At present, there are still several problems in the construction of the reference model:

1. The current seismic data coverage needs to be enhanced in some regions. These areas include northwestern China, the Tibetan Plateau, north-central China, and the coastal regions of China.
2. There are differences in existing models, and various data constraints need to be integrated into the model construction.
3. The current circulation and sharing of seismic data among researchers are to be enhanced.

2) Establishment rules

The working group decided that the “Chinese Seismological Reference Model” would eventually be established by a building group (different from the working group), which would be formed by the following mechanisms:

Researchers who have made significant contributions to the work of the model will become members of the group. At the same time, any researcher who provides original information or new methods of practical value to the results center can become a member of the group. On a voluntary basis, members of the construction group will become collaborators of various types of results of the reference model.

Original information submitted to the Results Center will be managed according to the following rules:

1. The data (three years after the project acceptance) will be shared with researchers in China.
2. The researcher’s use of the data will be limited to his or her own research team; the use of the data will be subject to the confidentiality requirements of the original data.
3. The user of the data shall negotiate with the original data providers on how to share the results of the use of the data, the minimum requirement of which is a citation of the article on the original data, and the co-authorship of the original data is subject to the wishes of the original data providers.