Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Kinematic History of a Salient-recess Junction Explored through a Combined Approach of Field Data and Analog Sandbox Modeling
Published on: August 5, 2016
Deviation from power law of the global seismic moment distribution
Isabel Serra1, Álvaro Corral1,2
1Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, Edifici C, Campus Bellaterra, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract:
The distribution of seismic moment is of capital interest to evaluate earthquake hazard, in particular regarding the most extreme events. We make use of likelihood-ratio tests to compare the simple Gutenberg-Richter power-law (PL) distribution with two statistical models that incorporate an exponential tail, the so-called tapered Gutenberg-Richter (Tap) and the truncated gamma, when fitted to the global CMT earthquake catalog. Although the Tap distribution does not introduce any significant improvement of fit respect the PL, the truncated gamma does. Simulated samples of this distribution, with parameters β = 0.68 and mc = 9.15 and reshuffled in order to mimic the time occurrence of the order statistics of the empirical data, are able to explain the temporal heterogeneity of global seismicity both before and after the great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake of 2004.
Related Concept Videos
Variation in Acceleration due to Gravity near the Earth's Surface
The difference between the true and apparent weights is proportional to the square of the Earth's...
Resultant Moment: Scalar Formulation
To determine the resultant moment, the moments caused by all the forces in a system in the x-y plane are considered. Positive moments are typically...
Bending Moment Diagram
Determine reactive forces and couple moments: Calculate all the reactive forces and couple moments acting on the beam. In certain cases, when the beam is inclined at an...
Random Error
Relation Between the Distributed Load and Shear
Relation Between the Shear and Bending Moment

