1976•Geophysical Research LettersRequires access
Determination of maximum earthquake magnitude
Stewart W. Smith
Open publisher page 42 citations
Abstract
A method is proposed to utilize the geologic record of fault displacement along with fault length to estimate the maximum magnitude earthquake that can be expected on an active fault. The method uses seismic moment as the link between geologic data and earthquake statistics. Several examples illustrate that faults of comparable length but different total slip in Holocene time have significantly different earthquake potentials.