Abstract
A maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the earthquake hazard parameters maximum magnitudeM max, annual activity rate λ, and theb value of the Gutenberg-Richter equation in the Vrancea (Romania) region. The applied procedure permits the use of mixed catalogs with incomplete historical as well as complete instrumental parts, the consideration of variable detection thresholds, and the incorporation of earthquake magnitude uncertainty.
Our imput data, comprises 105 historical earthquakes which occurred between 984 and 1934, and a complete data file containing 1067 earthquakes which occurred during the period 1935–30 August, 1986. The complete part was divided into four subcatalogs according to different thresholds of completeness. Only subcrustal events were considered, and dependent events were removed.
The obtained\(\hat b\) value (=0.65) is at the lower range of the previously reported results, but it appears concurrent with conceptual and observational facts. The same concerns inferred value of\(\hat M\) max = 7.8 and activity rate\(\hat \lambda \) 4.0 = 5.34.
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Mârza, V.I., Kijko, A. & Mäntyniemi, P. Estimate of earthquake hazard in the Vrancea (Romania) region. PAGEOPH 136, 143–154 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00878892
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00878892