Overview

This documentation is for version 3.0.2-SNAPSHOT_2025-06-18T193042 of The TauP Toolkit created Jun 19, 2025.

The algorithms employed within the TauP package are based on the method of Buland and Chapman [BC83]. The IASPEI ttimes package is a widely-used implementation of the methodology.

The main benefit of this new package is a marked increase in flexibility. It will handle many types of velocity models, instead of being limited to just a few. A new phase parser allows times to be computed for virtually any seismic phase. The use of Java enables this code to be run on a variety of machine and operating system types, without recompiling. This package also offers the extraction of derivative information, such as ray paths through the earth, pierce and turning points, as well as travel time curves.

A paper was been published in Seismological Research Letters, Crotwell et al. [COR99], that is intended to be used as a companion to this manual. While this manual mainly focuses on the practicalities of using the codes, the paper is able to go into more detail on the methodology. A pdf copy of this paper is also available in the distribution.

The latest version of this documentation is available at Read The Docs.

The latest source is at GitHub, https://github.com/crotwell/TauP . Please file bug reports there, https://github.com/crotwell/TauP/issues .

If you find TauP useful and would like to cite it, please use the following:

Crotwell, H. P., T. J. Owens, and J. Ritsema (1999). The TauP Toolkit: Flexible seismic travel-time and ray-path utilities, Seismological Research Letters 70, 154–160.

Crotwell, H. P. 2025. The TauP Toolkit (3.0.2-SNAPSHOT_2025-06-18T193042). Zenodo. Zenodo

I really enjoy writing software that others find useful. And while the journey is its own reward, it is nice to hear from people that use and like TauP. If you find the TauP Toolkit to be a useful item in your seismology toolbox, drop me an email, crotwell@seis.sc.edu, and tell me something you appreciate about TauP and something you wish it could do. And if you find a bug, please file an issue.

Thank you for using TauP and good luck.