The new empirical magnitude conversion relations using an improved earthquake catalogue for Turkey and its near vicinity (1900-2012)

Authors: FİLİZ TUBA KADİRİOĞLU, RECAİ FEYİZ KARTAL

Abstract: Empirical magnitude conversion relationships are one of the important parameters for not only seismological studies but also seismic hazard analysis and development of the attenuation relationships. Particularly, for seismic hazard analysis, conversion of various types of magnitudes to moment magnitude, which is the most reliable and common magnitude scale, is a key requirement. Within this scope, different magnitude conversion equations have been derived by various researchers in the literature. In this study, new empirical magnitude conversion formulas for conversion from m_b, M_L, M_d, and M_S to M_w were derived by using a recently established earthquake catalogue. The most important feature of the new relationships is the use of the maximum data with respect to the literature. It is a well-known fact that having a greater number of data increases the sensitivity of the equations derived. Both orthogonal regression (OR) and ordinary least squares (OLS) were used to derive conversion equations, and the results obtained from these two methods were compared. In the derivation, 489 events with magnitudes in M_w scale taken from the Harvard GCMT Catalogue were used. Residual graphs created for both methods showed that the OR method gives better results than OLS for conversion from MM_S to M_w. On the other hand, the OLS method showed preferable performance for conversions from m_b, M_L, and M_d to M_w. The equations proposed in this study were also compared with other empirical relations in the literature.

Keywords: Moment magnitude, earthquake catalogue, orthogonal regression, ordinary least squares, empirical relations, magnitude scales

Full Text: PDF