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Published September 1, 1978 | public
Journal Article

Quantification of great earthquakes

Abstract

The surface-wave magnitude, M_s, is widely used to represent the "size" of an earthquake. However, the wavelength of seismic waves used for the determination of M_s is about 50 km so that it is unclear whether M_s can adequately quantify great earthquakes whose fault dimension is much larger than the wavelength. Such great earthquakes, though they are relatively infrequent, contribute most to the total seismic energy budget. It is desirable to implement a parameter which represents better the overall "size" of such great earthquakes.

Additional Information

© 1978 Published by Elsevier B.V. Available online 1 April 2003. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant EAR77-13641. Contribution No. 3114, Division of Geological Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Ca. 91125.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023