Keep a local seismic catalog.
Copyright (c) 2022-2026 Claudio Satriano satriano@ipgp.fr
SeisCat is a command-line tool to build, maintain, and query a local seismic catalog.
It builds and updates the catalog from FDSNWS event web services or local event files. Input formats include CSV and any format handled by ObsPy (QuakeML, SC3ML, NLLOC, etc.). The catalog is stored in a SQLite single-file database and can be used as a basis for further analysis.
SeisCat also provides tools to plot and export the catalog, fetch waveforms and station metadata for catalog events, and run user-defined scripts on those events.
👇 See below on how to install and get started.
📖 Check out the official documentation here.
To get help:
seiscat -h
First thing to do is to generate a sample configuration file:
seiscat sampleconfig
Then, edit the configuration file and init the database:
seiscat initdb
Alternatively, you can init the database from an event file (CSV, QuakeML, SC3ML, NLLOC, etc.):
seiscat initdb -f /path/to/your/catalog.csv
seiscat initdb -f /path/to/your/events.xml
To update an existing database from an FDSN webservice, run:
seiscat updatedb
(This will use the configuration parameter recheck_period to recheck the
last n days or hours).
Alternatively, you can update the database from an event file:
seiscat updatedb -f /path/to/your/catalog.csv
seiscat updatedb -f /path/to/your/events.xml
You can edit the attributes of specific events in the database using:
seiscat editdb
You can print the catalog to screen:
seiscat print
Or plot it:
seiscat plot
Each of the above commands can have its own options.
As an example, to discover the options for the plot command, try:
seiscat plot -h
SeisCat supports command line tab completion for arguments, thanks to argcomplete. To enable command line tab completion run:
activate-global-python-argcomplete
(This is a one-time command that needs to be run only once).
Or, alternatively, add the following line to your .bashrc or .zshrc:
eval "$(register-python-argcomplete seiscat)"
The latest release of SeisCat is available on the Python Package Index.
You can install it easily through pip:
pip install seiscat
Optional plotting backends can be installed with extras:
pip install seiscat[cartopy]
pip install seiscat[plotly]
pip install seiscat[cartopy,plotly]
To upgrade from a previously installed version:
pip install --upgrade seiscat
Download the latest release from the
releases page,
in zip or tar.gz format, then:
pip install seiscat-X.Y.zip
or
pip install seiscat-X.Y.tar.gz
Where, X.Y is the version number (e.g., 0.1).
You don't need to uncompress the release files yourself.
If you need a recent feature that is not in the latest release (see the
unreleased section in CHANGELOG), you want to use the more
recent development snapshot from the
SeisCat GitHub repository.
The easiest way to install the most recent development snapshot is to download
and install it through pip, using its builtin git client:
pip install git+https://github.com/SeismicSource/seiscat.git
Run this command again, from times to times, to keep SeisCat updated with the development version.
If you want to take a look at the source code (and possibly modify it 😉),
clone the project using git:
git clone https://github.com/SeismicSource/seiscat.git
or, using SSH:
git clone git@github.com:SeismicSource/seiscat.git
(avoid using the "Download ZIP" option from the green "Code" button, since version number is lost).
Then, go into the seiscat main directory and install the code in "editable
mode" by running:
pip install -e .
To install optional plotting backends in editable mode:
pip install -e .[cartopy]
pip install -e .[plotly]
pip install -e .[cartopy,plotly]
You can keep your local SeisCat repository updated by running git pull
from times to times. Thanks to pip's "editable mode", you don't need to
reinstall SeisCat after each update.
Please open an Issue.
Please open an Issue.
I'm very open to contributions: if you have new ideas, please open an Issue. Don't hesitate sending me pull requests with new features and/or bugfixes!