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Calibration of an M L scale for South Africa using tectonic earthquake data recorded by the South African National Seismograph Network: 2006 to 2009

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Abstract

A relation to determine local magnitude (M L) based on the original Richter definition is empirically derived from synthetic Wood–Anderson seismograms recorded by the South African National Seismograph Network. In total, 263 earthquakes in the distance range 10 to 1,000 km, representing 1,681 trace amplitudes measured in nanometers from synthesized Wood–Anderson records on the vertical channel were considered to derive an attenuation relation appropriate for South Africa through multiple regression analysis. Additionally, station corrections were determined for 26 stations during the regression analysis resulting in values ranging between −0.31 and 0.50. The most appropriate M L scale for South Africa from this study satisfies the equation:

$$ {M_{{{\bf L}}}} = {\text{lo}}{{\text{g}}_{{10}}}(A) + 1.149\;{\text{lo}}{{\text{g}}_{{10}}}(R) + 0.00063R + 2.04 - S $$

The anelastic attenuation term derived from this study indicates that ground motion attenuation is significantly different from Southern California but comparable with stable continental regions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the National Research Foundation under Grant Number TP2010061400012. We are grateful to the editors and four anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions and positive criticism to improve the manuscript and a special word of gratitude to Prof. Bormann for contributing to the manuscript through invaluable support and insightful ideas. The authors further wish to express their gratitude to the copy editor, Sonja van Eck, for her meticulous and careful review of the manuscript and to Magda Roos for her assistance with the figures for the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Council for Geoscience, Private Bag X112, Silverton, Pretoria, South Africa, 0001

    Ian Saunders & Martin B. C. Brandt

  2. Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Allegt, 41, 5007, Norway

    Lars Ottemöller

  3. Environmental, Water and Earth Science Department, Faculty of Science, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X460, Pretoria, South Africa, 0001

    Christoffel J. S. Fourie

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  1. Ian Saunders
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  4. Christoffel J. S. Fourie
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Correspondence to Ian Saunders.

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Saunders, I., Ottemöller, L., Brandt, M.B.C. et al. Calibration of an M L scale for South Africa using tectonic earthquake data recorded by the South African National Seismograph Network: 2006 to 2009. J Seismol 17, 437–451 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-012-9329-0

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