A UK MW catalogue derived from coda envelopes

Abstract

Summary The United Kingdom (UK) experiences low-to-moderate levels of seismicity; only 12 onshore earthquakes with local magnitude (ML) ≥ 4.0 have been recorded in the past 20 years. It is therefore difficult to estimate moment magnitude (MW) using conventional moment tensor inversion for the majority of UK seismicity, resulting in limited reliable estimates of MW. To address this, we calibrated coda envelopes at 16 broadband seismic stations distributed across the UK, to produce a MW catalogue for 100 events with MW≥2.13 that occurred since 2006. This was achieved using the open-source Coda Calibration Tool, which requires independent source parameter estimates for calibration. For 13 UK events between 2006 and 2022, we used spectral modelling to estimate apparent stress (0.32 to 1.74 MPa), and moment tensor inversion to estimate MW (3.35 to 4.52). These independent source parameters formed a subset of the inputs into the final calibration, which used seismic data from 33 events with coda-derived values of 2.57$\le $Mw$\le $4.49. The resultant coda calibration parameters were applied to 67 further events (MW≥2.13). The coda envelopes exhibit slow seismic coda decay across the UK, with significant energy up to 20 Hz, consistent with other regions of low tectonic activity. This MW catalogue, and the application of the calibration to future UK seismic events, will be useful for both assessing seismic hazard and event characterisation.