Abstract
Because earthquakes are the result of complex geophysical processes, it is not a simple matter to find a single measure of the size of an earthquake. Further, extremely large earthquakes saturate the conventional magnitude scale. Recent estimates of energy released by such earthquakes suggest values high enough to have possible implications for plate motion, the Chandler wobble and rotation of the Earth.
Access options
Subscribe to Journal
Get full journal access for 1 year
220,50 €
only 4,32 € per issue
All prices include VAT for France.
Rent or Buy article
Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.
from$8.99
All prices are NET prices.
References
- 1.
Richter, C. F. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 25, 1 (1935).
- 2.
Gutenberg, B. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 35, 8 (1945).
- 3.
Gutenberg, B. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 35, 57 (1945).
- 4.
Gutenberg, B. & Richter, C. F. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 46, 105 (1956).
- 5.
Gutenberg, B. & Richter, C. F. Seismicity of the Earth (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1949).
- 6.
Gutenberg, B. Trans. Am. geophys. Un. 37, 608 (1956).
- 7.
Tsubai, C. J. Phys. Earth 4, 63 (1956).
- 8.
Aki, K. Bull. Earthquake Res. Inst. Tokyo Univ. 44, 23 (1966).
- 9.
Brune, J. N. & King, C. Y. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 57, 1355 (1967).
- 10.
Brune, J. N. & Engen, G. R. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 59, 923 (1969).
- 11.
Ben-Menahem, A. Proc. VESIAC Conf., Michigan Univ. Geophys. Lab., 85 (1965).
- 12.
Kanamori, H. J. geophys. Res. 82, 2981 (1977).
- 13.
Kanamori, H. & Anderson, D. L. Bull. seism. Soc. Am. 65, 1073 (1975).
- 14.
Anderson, D. L. Science 186, 49 (1974).
- 15.
O'Connell, R. & Dziewonski, A. M. Nature 262, 259 (1976).
- 16.
Kanamori, H. in Island Arcs, Deep Sea Trenches and Back-Arc Basins, 163 (American Geophysical Union, 1977).
- 17.
Agnew, D., Berger, J., Buland, R., Farrell, W. & Gilbert, F. Eos, 57, 180 (1976).
Author information
Affiliations
Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125.
- Hiroo Kanamori
Authors
Search for Hiroo Kanamori in:
Rights and permissions
To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.
About this article
Further reading
-
1.
Scientific Reports (2018)
-
2.
Threshold seismic energy and liquefaction distance limit during the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering (2018)
-
3.
Identifying the occurrence time of an impending major earthquake: a review
Earthquake Science (2017)
-
4.
M W9 Tohoku earthquake in 2011 in Japan: precursors uncovered by natural time analysis
Earthquake Science (2017)
-
5.
Natural Hazards (2017)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.