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The Maximum Earthquake Magnitude in a Time Horizon: Theory and Case Studies

  • We show how the maximum magnitude within a predefined future time horizon may be estimated from an earthquake catalog within the context of Gutenberg-Richter statistics. The aim is to carry out a rigorous uncertainty assessment, and calculate precise confidence intervals based on an imposed level of confidence a. In detail, we present a model for the estimation of the maximum magnitude to occur in a time interval T-f in the future, given a complete earthquake catalog for a time period T in the past and, if available, paleoseismic events. For this goal, we solely assume that earthquakes follow a stationary Poisson process in time with unknown productivity Lambda and obey the Gutenberg-Richter law in magnitude domain with unknown b-value. The random variables. and b are estimated by means of Bayes theorem with noninformative prior distributions. Results based on synthetic catalogs and on retrospective calculations of historic catalogs from the highly active area of Japan and the low-seismicity, but high-risk region lower Rhine embaymentWe show how the maximum magnitude within a predefined future time horizon may be estimated from an earthquake catalog within the context of Gutenberg-Richter statistics. The aim is to carry out a rigorous uncertainty assessment, and calculate precise confidence intervals based on an imposed level of confidence a. In detail, we present a model for the estimation of the maximum magnitude to occur in a time interval T-f in the future, given a complete earthquake catalog for a time period T in the past and, if available, paleoseismic events. For this goal, we solely assume that earthquakes follow a stationary Poisson process in time with unknown productivity Lambda and obey the Gutenberg-Richter law in magnitude domain with unknown b-value. The random variables. and b are estimated by means of Bayes theorem with noninformative prior distributions. Results based on synthetic catalogs and on retrospective calculations of historic catalogs from the highly active area of Japan and the low-seismicity, but high-risk region lower Rhine embayment (LRE) in Germany indicate that the estimated magnitudes are close to the true values. Finally, we discuss whether the techniques can be extended to meet the safety requirements for critical facilities such as nuclear power plants. For this aim, the maximum magnitude for all times has to be considered. In agreement with earlier work, we find that this parameter is not a useful quantity from the viewpoint of statistical inference.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Gert ZöllerORCiDGND, Matthias HolschneiderORCiDGND, Sebastian HainzlORCiDGND
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1785/0120120013
ISSN:0037-1106
Title of parent work (English):Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
Publisher:Seismological Society of America
Place of publishing:Albany
Publication type:Article
Language:English
Year of first publication:2013
Publication year:2013
Release date:2017/03/26
Volume:103
Issue:2A
Number of pages:16
First page:860
Last Page:875
Funding institution:German Research Society [HA4789/2-1]; Potsdam Research Cluster for Georisk Analysis, Environmental Change and Sustainability (PROGRESS)
Organizational units:Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Mathematik
Peer review:Referiert
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