Seismic risk of circum-Pacific earthquakes: II. Extreme values using Gumbel's third distribution and the relationship with strain energy release

Abstract

In a previous paper (Makropoulos andBurton, 1983) the seismic risk of the circum-Pacific belt was examined using a ‘whole process’ technique reduced to three representative parameters related to the physical release of strain energy, these are:M1, the annual modal magnitude determined using the Gutenberg-Richter relationship;M2, the magnitude equivalent to the total strain energy release rate per annum, andM3, the upper bound magnitude equivalent to the maximum strain energy release in a region.