Abstract
After the Cairo Earthquake in 1992 with moderate magnitude (Ms 5.9), the government established the Egyptian National Seismological Network (ENSN) with 66 short-period and broadband stations, organized by National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG). Around 55,000 local events were recorded from 1997 to 2014. The aim of this study is to assess the magnitude of completeness (M c) of an instrumental earthquake catalogue. Three different methods named the maximum curvature (MAXC), b value stability (MBS), and entire magnitude range (EMR) were applied to calculate M c and the results are compared together; all of these used methods are catalogue-based methods, in which M c is estimated based on departure from the linear frequency-magnitude relation of the local earthquakes published in the ENSN catalogue. Accurate knowledge of the magnitude of completeness M c is essential for many seismicity-based studies and particularly for mapping out seismicity parameters such as the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter relationship. The difference in M c between the three used methods is 0.9. However, tests performed on the diverse data sets presented here had confirmed that the EMR method is the more accurate method to estimate M c. Estimating M c solely based on the frequency-magnitude distribution (FMD) has some obvious drawbacks like the difficulty of estimating M c in areas of low seismicity. The final results showed that the MAXC technique (M c = 1.6 ± 0.02) needs fewer events to reach a stable result. While the MBS results (M c = 2.5 ± 0.04) gave always higher M c values compared with the other two methods, comparing to the third method, the EMR results (M c = 1.8 ± 0.03) maximize the amount of data available for the M c determination, which should serve to stabilize the M c estimates. This study will play an important role in the future reconfiguration of the ENSN stations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aki K (1987) Magnitude frequency relation for small earthquakes: a clue to the origin of fmax of large earthquakes. J Geophys Res 92:1349–1355
Cao AM, Gao SS (2002) Temporal variations of seismic b-values beneath northeastern Japan island arc. Geophys Res Lett 29:1334. doi:10.1029/2001GL013775, 6, 8, 14, 15, 18, 19
D’Alessandro A, Luzio D, D’Anna G, Mangano G (2011) Seismic network evaluation through simulation: an application to the Italian National Seismic Network. Bull Seismol Soc Am 101:1213–1232. doi:10.1785/0120100066
Faeh D, Giardini D, Bay F, Baer M, Bernardi F, Braunmiller J, Deichmann N, Furrer M, Gantner L, Gisler M, Isenegger D, Jimenez MJ, Kaestli P, Koglin R, Masciadri V, Rutz M, Scheideg-ger C, Schibler R, Schorlemmer D, Schwarz-Zanctti G, Steimen S, Sellami S, Wiemer S, Woessner J (2003) Earthquake Catalog of Switzerland (ECOS) and the related macroseismic database. Eclogae Geol Helv 96:219–236
Felzer KR (2006) Calculating the Gutenberg-Richter b-value. EOS Trans AGU, Fall Meet 87(52)
Gomberg J (1991) Seismicity and detection/location threshold in the southern Great Basin seismic network. J Geophys Res 96(B10):16,401–16,414
Gutenberg R, Richter CF (1944) Frequency of earthquakes in California. Bull Seismol Soc Am 34:185–188
Habermann RE (1991) Seismicity rate variations and systematic changes in magnitudes in teleseismic catalogs. Tectonophysics 193:277–289
Harvey D, Hansen R (1994) Contributions of IRIS data to nuclear monitoring. IRIS Newsl 13:1
Ishimoto M, Iida K (1939) Observations of earthquakes registered with the micro-seismograph constructed recently. Bull Earthquake Res Inst 17:443–478
Kagan YY (2002) Seismic moment distribution revisited: I. Statistical results. Geophys J Int 148:520–541, 9,19
Ogata Y, Katsura K (1993) Analysis of temporal and spatial heterogeneity of magnitude frequency distribution inferred from earthquake catalogues. Geophys J Int 113:727–738, 9, 14, 19, 25
Rydelek PA, Sacks IS (1989) testing the completeness of earthquake catalogs and the hypothesis of self-similarity. Nature 337:251–253
Rydelek PA, Sacks IS (1992) Comment on “Seismicity and detection/location threshold in the southern Great Basin seismic network” by Joan Gomberg. J Geophys Res 97(B11):15,361–15,362
Rydelek PA, Sacks IS (2003) Comment on “Minimum magnitude of completeness in earthquake catalogs: examples from Alaska, the western United States, and Japan”, by Stefan Wiemer and Max Wyss. Bull Seismol Soc Am 93:1862–1867, 30
Schorlemmer D, Woessner J (2008) Probability of detecting an earthquake. Bull Seismol Soc Am 98:2103–2117. doi:10.1785/0120070105, 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 33, 34, 35
Schorlemmer D, Wiemer S, Wyss M (2005) Variations in earthquake-size distribution across different stress regimes. Nature 437:539–542. doi:10.1038/nature04094
Smith WD (1981) The b-value as an earthquake precursor. Nature 289:136–139. doi:10.1038/289136a0
Speidel DH, Mattson PH (1993) The polymodal frequency-magnitude relationship of earthquakes. Bull Seismol Soc Am 83:1893–1901
Wiemer S (2001) Software package to analyze seismicity: ZMAP. Seismol Res Lett 72:373–382
Wiemer S, Baer M (2000) Mapping and removing quarry blast events from seismicity catalogs. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90:525–530
Wiemer S, Wyss M (2000) Minimum magnitude of complete reporting in earthquake catalogs: examples from Alaska, the western United States, and Japan. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90:859–869, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 24, 28, 29, 30, 32
Wiemer S, Giardin D, Fah D, Deichmann N, Sellami S (2009) Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for Switzerland: best estimates and uncertainties. J Seismol. doi:10.1007/s10950-008-9138-7
Woessner J, Wiemer S (2005) Assessing the quality of earthquake catalogues: estimating the magnitude of completeness and its uncertainty. Bull Seismol Soc Am 95. doi:10.1785/012040007. 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
Zuniga FR, Wiemer S (1999) Seismicity patterns: are they always related to natural causes? Pure Appl Geophys 155:713–726
Zuniga R, Wyss M (1995) Inadvertent changes in magnitude reported in earthquake catalogs: influence on b-value estimates. Bull Seismol Soc Am 85:1858–1866
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hafiez, H.E.A. Estimating the magnitude of completeness for assessing the quality of earthquake catalogue of the ENSN, Egypt. Arab J Geosci 8, 9315–9323 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-1929-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-1929-x