Third, the NEIC pursues an active research program to improve its ability to locate earthquakes and to understand the earthquake mechanism. At the present time, the NEIC staff locates and publishes approximately 20,000 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. The NEIC also relies on the excellent cooperation of a variety of seismic reporting networks throughout the world to gather data.
Some stations report regularly and some report only occasionally or for local events.
The data that are collected by the NEIC are published in a variety of formats and publications. Investigations range from resolving the internal structure of the Earth to understanding the mechanics of earthquake rupture.