Strong pulse-like ground motions excited by a causative fault with a
rupture propagation close to the shear wave velocity can induce
significant geological hazards. Despite recent advances in the
observation and analysis of velocity pulses, the current understanding
remains constrained by the small amount of pulse data, which to date
have been investigated primarily in the horizontal direction. To address
these challenges, we identify and extract large velocity pulses of
continuous rotation records from three-component seismic data of 46
globally distributed earthquakes using a wavelet transform method. To
better represent global seismic activities and disasters, we quantify
the spatial pulse and spectral parameters that characterize pulse-like
ground motion. The results indicate that the 3D rotation velocity pulse
is significantly stronger than the original 1D and 2D pulse-like ground
motion. Our study provides a quantitative framework to better assess and
predict pulse-like ground motion in seismogenic regions.