Unified Local Magnitude Scale for Earthquakes of South Balkan Area

Abstract

—A homogeneous earthquake catalog spanning 1964–1995 for the southern Balkan area is presented, by expressing the size of the earthquakes in a unified local magnitude scale. The strategy followed to produce this catalog is also presented. Local magnitudes calculated by six Balkan seismological centers (ATH, THE, ISK, TIR, TTG, SKO) have been used in order to obtain relations between the estimated M _L values from the Greek seismological centers (ATH and THE) and the remaining four Balkan stations. Since it was found that local magnitudes estimated by ATH and THE are almost identical, they have been used as one data set so as to correlate with the data of each one of the remaining four seismological stations. Based on the proposed relations, a unified local magnitude, M _LGR, is given for each earthquake of the regional catalog. A published scaling relation between the M _L values from ATH and THE networks and the corresponding seismic moment magnitude, M _w , was used in combination with the above relations, in order to enable the conversion of any M _L value from any station into M _w . The catalog completeness has been checked and the b-value has been calculated for the complete data sample.