Earthquake magnitude — recent research and current trends

Abstract

The magnitude recommendations adopted by the IASPEI Assembly at Zürich in 1967 have had both a stabilizing and a stimulating effect on magnitude determinations and related research. From 1967 onwards, one magnitude research paper has appeared on the average almost every week, thus making this parameter the most studied one in seismology. New facilities and more accurate methods, e.g., concerning instrumental equipment and interpretation techniques, have made it possible to improve earlier achievements. The application of magnitude scales has been extended in all respects, e.g., with regard to epicentral distances, focal depths, wave types and wave periods. Magnitude—frequency relations have become the most investigated equations within seismology, observationally as well as theoretically. They have wide applications, e.g., for estimating the maximum magnitudes of future earthquakes — an important item in earthquake prediction. The magnitudes provide significant information on other source parameters, such as wave energy, fault length, seismic moment. Relations between different types of magnitude yield valuable information on source properties. For instance, relations between magnitudes based on body and surface waves are used for efficient discrimination between earthquakes and underground explosions. It is our purpose to review the magnitude development in the post-Zürich period (1967–1980), partly for geologists, tectonophysicists and engineers, who need an overview, partly for seismologists, who need an introduction to an overwhelmingly comprehensive literature.