Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. Vol. 65, No. 5, pp. 1073-1095.

October 1975

T H E O R E T I C A L BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY BY HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON ABSTRACT Empirical relations involving seismic moment M o , magnitude M s , energy E s and fault dimension L (or area S) are discussed on the basis of an extensive set of earthquake data ( M s >= 6) and simple crack and dynamic dislocation models. The relation between log S and log M o is remarkably linear (slope ~ 2/3) indicating a constant stress drop Aa; Atr = 30, 100 and 60 bars are obtained for inter-plate, intra-plate and "average" earthquakes, respectively. Except for very large earthquakes, the relation M s ~ (2/3) log M o ~ 2 log L is established by the data. This is consistent with the dynamic dislocation model for point dislocation rise times and rupture times of most earthquakes. For very large earthquakes M s ~ (1/3) log M o ,,~ log L ~ (1/3) log E s . For very small earthquakes M s ~ log M o ,~ 3 log L ~ log E s . Scaling rules are assumed and justified. This model predicts log E s ~ 1.5 M s ,-~ 3 log L which is consistent with the Gutenberg-Richter relation. Since the static energy is proportional to 0L 3, where ~ is the average stress, this relation suggests a constant apparent stress ~/i where r/ is the efficiency. The earthquake data suggest r/0 ~ Atr. These relations lead to log S ,,~ M s consistent with the empirical relation. This relation together with a simple geometrical argument explains the magnitude-frequency relation log N N - M s .

INTRODUCTION The magnitude was the first quantitative measure of the strength of an earthquake. It is still the most widely used earthquake parameter although its shortcomings are well known. It is also the most difficult parameter to relate theoretically to other important source characteristics such as strain energy release, fault offset, stress drop, source dimension, moment and radiated seismic energy. These other parameters can be related, one to another, fairly easily, but their relationship to magnitude requires a spectral description of the seismic source. Such a description requires a complete time and space history of the faulting or stress release mechanism. For example, the magnitude is calculated from seismic-wave amplitudes at a given izeriod while the seismic energy release involves integration over the whole spectrum. The seismic moment is determined from the long-period level which may be quite removed, in period or frequency, from the period at which the magnitude is measured. In the first part of this paper, we summarize the relationships among the fault parameters which can be derived from static crack ordislocation theories. We then use dynamic theories of the faulting process to relate magnitudes to these other source parameters. In particular, we derive a general relationship between magnitude and radiated seismic energy. We derive the Gutenberg-Richter energy magnitude relation log E s ~ 1.5 M s and demonstrate under .what conditions it is valid. In the process, we show the relationship between magnitt/de, fault dimension, stress drop, and moment. These relationships depend on such dimensionless parameters as the ratio of rise time to total fracture time or ratios involving the coherence length, coherence time, and local rupture velocity. In going from static models to seismic measurements, param1073

1074

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

eters such as efficiency, stress drop, and mean stress are also important. We will show that very simple crack and dynamic dislocation models can explain various important empirical relations observed for large ( M s > 6.0) earthquakes for which the observed data are most accurate and complete.
SOURCE PARAMETERS

From the static or geological point of view the important faulting parameters are dimension, /7, and average offset, /3. From these, and the material properties # (or 2 and #) the static moment, M o , can be calculated. The mean stress, 6, also is required to calculate the strain energy change, A W, associated with faulting. Some fraction, t/, of this is available for radiation as seismic energy. Three independent source parameters are therefore required to describe the statics of faulting; L, /9, and ~ or L, M o, and A W, for example. A parameter often used in discussions of fault mechanisms is the stress drop, Aa. This however, is simply # D/r,. A seismogram contains information relevant to all of the above parameters but to be interpreted must be corrected for distortion by the instrument and the Earth and for dynamic properties of the source such as rise time (z) and duration (tc) and direction of faulting. Although in some cases the rise time, or source-time function, can be determined from the seismogram, the information usually available is the amplitude at some frequency (the magnitude). The total energy contained in the seismogram and the longperiod level (the seismic moment) can be obtained from special studies using appropriate instruments. If all earthquakes are "similar", a measurement of amplitude at a single frequency defines the spectrum, and scaling laws such as those proposed by Aki (1967) can be used to estimate the other parameters such as moment and energy. This kind of scaling, in fact, is implicit in attempts to relate magnitude to energy (Gutenberg and Richter, 1956) or moment (Brune and Engen, 1969; Aki, 1967). In this paper the independent source parameters used most often will be S (fault area ~ L2), Aa (stress drop), t/tY (apparent stress), E s (seismic energy), M o (moment), z (rise time), and tc (duration of faulting = L / v where v is average propagation velocity). Assumptions of similarity and scaling and spectral source theories can be used to interrelate some of these parameters and to involve M s (magnitude) in the discussion. STATIC THEORIES Figure 1 summarizes the relationships between average offset,/), stress drop, Aa, and strain energy, AW, for circular faults (Eshelby, 1957; Keilis Borok, 1959), strike-slip faults (Knopoff, 1958) and dip-slip faults (Start, 1928). The dimensions of the fault are a (radius) or L and w (length and width) which we represent by L. For a vertical fault w is the depth interval over which displacement occurs. The mean stress, ~, and stress drop, Ao-, are (a0 +o'1)/2 and o-o - a 1 , respectively, where ~ro is the initial stress and al the final stress. The stress drop Aa is given by
A~ = c~(O/F3 (1)

where # is the rigidity, and C is a nondimensional shape factor. D/L = A~ is the representative strain change, or strain drop. For circular faults r, = a and C = 7~/16 (Eshelby, 1957; Keilis Borok, 1959). For shallow infinite longitudinal shear faults (strike slip), L, = w and C = 2/~ (Knopoff, 1958). For shallow infinite transverse shear faults (dip

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY

1075

slip), L,= w and C = 4 ( 2 + # ) / n ( 2 + 2 # ) where 2 is the Lam6 constant (Starr, 1928; Aki, 1966). In all cases C ~ 1. In the latter two cases the free surface effect is included (Knopoff, 1958; Aki, 1966) For a finite rectangular fault of length L, relation (I) holds only approximately, but it is a reasonably good approximation (Chinnery, 1964; Sat, 1972). The change in the strain energy AWls given by
A W = S D 6 = ( L / C # ) S A a ~ = ( L / Z C # ) S ( a o Z - a ~ 2)

(2)

where S is the fault area The static moment M o is

= (#/6)AW.

The radiated seismic energy E s is

where ~ is the seismic efficiency of ~/< 1.

Circular

Strike Slip

Dip Slip

,~ Stress drop (Aa)

(;~ = It)
7n 16 (D) 2 [/3]

16it a
:-

~it 2it
__ w 2 L A a ~

aaAa#

n(2 + 210 w 2LAa# 4(2+p)it

( M o = ItS.D)

16 A a a a 7

n Aaw2L 2

n(2 + 2it) Aaw2L 40,+/0

FIG. 1. Relations between stress drop, strain energy, offset, dimension, and moment for static cracks. Dimensions of the fault are a radius, L length, w width; initial stress is a ; final stress is era ; stress drop

is Aa = a o - a l ; average stress is 5 = (ao + al)/2; average dislocation is/~.

DYNAMIC THEORIES

Consider a unilateral propagating fault of length L, width w, and area wL. The dislocation time function is assumed to be a linear ramp function of rise time z. Then, the amplitude spectral density [~c(~o)l of the far-field displacement in an infinite homogeneous medium resulting from this source is given by (Haskell, 1964),
I (.0~

]lfic(9)i_ # D L w [

sln~-

sin ~ -

~ot~

(3)
5-

where /) is the dislocation (offset), p the density, r the distance, uc the wave velocity, either P or S velocity, and R~, represents the radiation pattern (for notation see Haskell, 1964). tc is the rupture-time constant given by
tc = L / u - ( L / u c )

cos

where is the azimuth of the station measured from the rupture direction.

1076

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

Aki's (1967) statistical model replaces z and L by two statistical parameters, correlation time k r - 1 and correlation length kL- 1. The function
(D'( (DrC

sm 5 -

sin

5
is replaced by
1

5-

L /

(4)

The asymptotic behavior of this function f o r small and for large co is identical to that of (3), if kL -1 ,-~ L and k r -1 ~ z. These relations are fundamental to the following discussions. The statistical models assume that a fault breaks coherently for only short distances, compared to the total fault length, and short times, compared to the total fracture time. The deterministic model (Haskell, 1964) assumes that the dislocation propagates uniformly along the fault. The statistical feature was introduced by Haskell (1966) in order to explain the high-frequency part of observed spectra.
MOMENT VERSUS SOURCE A R EA

The concept of seismic moment, introduced into seismology fairly recently, rests on the equivalence between elastic dislocation and a double-force couple (Steketee, 1958; Burridge and Knopoff, 1964; Maruyama, 1963 i Aki, 1966; Haskell, 1964). An earthquake fault is mathematically modeled by a shear displacement discontinuity (dislocation) across a surface g in an elastic medium. This dislocation is equivalent to a distribution of double couples on this surface whose total moment is
Mo = #SD

(5)

where # is the rigidity of the medium, D the average dislocation, and S is the area of E. The moment of this equivalent double couple is called the seismic moment. Since the dislocation is, in general, a function of time, M o is also a function of time t. In a restricted usage, the value of M o at t ~ m is called the seismic moment. In practice, however, the period at which the determination of M o is made depends on the kind of available data. Geodetic data give M o at t ~ ~ , long-period surface-wave or free oscillation data give M o at minutes and hours, and body-wave data, at relatively short periods. It is usually assumed that M o is determined at sufficiently long period so that it represents the value at t = o~. Although this assumption seems reasonable in many cases, it is not necessarily self-evident. It depends, in fact, on the behavior of the spectrum at long periods: Since long-period waves are less affected by structural complexities than the shortperiod waves used for the determination of earthquake magnitude, the seismic moment is one of the most reliably determined instrumental earthquake source parameters. For large earthquakes, in particular, the values of M o determined by different investigators seldom differ by a factor of more than two. For small earthquakes, the uncertainty is usually somewhat larger. Many reliable determinations of seismic slip and moment have been made by using geodetic, surface-wave, free-oscillation, and body-wave data.

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY

1077

The physical dimensions of an earthquake source may be defined by the size of the fault plane or the aftershock area. When the earthquake fault is well defined by field observations or seismic directivity (Ben-Menahem, 1961), the area of the fault plane may be the most unambiguoas parameter representing the physical dimension of the source. However, when the source is suboceanic or the earthquake is too small or too deep to break the surface, the fault area cannot be determined directly. In these cases, the size of the aftershock area may be used instead to represent the physical size. Of course~ the aftershock area is not a completely unambiguous concept, but it has been shown for several Cases that the extent of the aftershock activity immediately after the main shock (hours or days) is consistent with the dimension of the fault length estimated by seismic directivity measurements (Benioff et al., 1961; Ben-Menahem and Toks6z, 1963; Kanamori, 1970a). However, in some cases, particularly for small earthquakes, the
6

-o
5 _--

Intra- Plate

. . ..X/..~ /
e20

~23,
_

%4
/
/ 17.,/ 7 /
,9

26" o3/4 /

' / "~-

22/7,~40ee .ig j
4 ? o/O_12 2d
35

25

26

27 Log

28 29 Mo, d y n e - c m

30

FIG. 2. Relation between S (fault surface area) and Mo (seismic moment). The straight lines give the relations for circular cracks with constant Atr (stress drop). The numbers attached to each event correspond to those in Table 1.

aftershock area tends to overestimate the fault area because of the uncertainty in aftershock locations and of the temporal expansion of the aftershock area. In this study, when the fault size is estimated by more than one method, the average is used. Details are given in the references to Table 1 which lists the fundamental earthquake parameters used in this study. A similar table has been published for 34 shallow-focus earthquakes i n t h e Tonga arc by Molnar and Wyss (1972). The seismic moment and the fault area summarized in Table 1 are plotted in Figure 2. This representation introduced by Aki (1972b) is similar to the one used by Hanks and Thatcher (1972) who used spectral parameters instead of physical parameters. In Figure 2, we classified the earthquakes into two groups, inter-plate and intra-plate earthquakes. The inter-plate earthquakes refer to those Which occur along, or parallel to, the major plate boundaries with a large slip rate. Major thrust earthquakes along subduction zones and along transform faults are classed into' this group. Earthquakes which occur clearly within the plate are intra-plate earthquakes. In the present paper, earthquakes whose

1078

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON are classed as intra-plate earthquakes, By this definition, the San Fernando even and

fault planes are not along the plate boundary though they occur near the plate boundary. Kern County

events are intra-plate earthquakes. TABLE 1 EARTHQUAKE DATA

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Event Kanto Tango N. Izu Saitama-1 Sanriku L o n g Beach Imperial Valley Tottori Tonankai Mikawa Nankaido Fukui Tokachi-Oki Kern County Fairview Peak Chile Kitamino W a k a s a Bay N. Atlantic Kuril Isl. N. Atlantic-2 Spain Alaska Niigata R a t Isl.-1 R a t Isl.-2 Parkfield Aleutian Truckee Peru Borrego Mt. Tokachi-Oki Saitama Portuguese Kurile Isl. Gifu Peru San F e r n a n d o Nemuro-Oki Turkey Iran

Date Sept. 1, 1923 Mar. 7, 1927 Nov. 25, 1930 Sept. 21, 1931 Mar. 2, 1933 Mar. 11, 1933 M a y t9, 1940 Sept. 10, 1943 Dec. 7, 1944 Jan. 12, 1945 Dec. 20, 1946 Jun. 28, 1948 Mar. 4, 1952 July 21, 1952 Dec. 16, 1954 M a y 22, 960 Aug. 19, 1961 Mar. 27, 1963 Aug. 3, 1963 Oct. 13, 1963 Nov. 17, 1963 Mar. 15, 1964 Mar. 28, 1964 J u n . 16, 1964 Feb. 4, 1965 Mar. 30, 1965 J u n 28, 1966 July 4, 1966 Sep. 12, 1966 Oct. 17, 1966 Apr. 9, 1968 M a y 16, 1968 July 1, 1968 Feb. 28, 1969 Aug. I1, 1969 Sept. 9, 1969 M a y 31, 1970 Feb. 9, 1971 Jun. 16, 1973 July 22, 1967 Aug. 31, 968

M~ 8.2 (5) 7.75 (12) 7.1 (1) 6.75 (1) 8.3 (1) 6.25 (1) 7.1 (13) 7.4 (1) 8.2 (16) 7.1 (1) 8.2 (16) 7.3 (1) 8.3 (1) 7.7 (1) 7.1 (21) 8.3 (21) 7.0 (2) 6.9 (z) 6.7 (26) 8.2 (21) 6.5 (26) 7.1 (33) 8.5 (21) 7.4 (21) 7.9 (21) 7.5 (21) 6.4 (37) 7.2 (26) 5.9 (s7)
7.5 (41)

(10z'z dyne-cm) 8.5 (6) 0.46 (11) 0.24 (7)

Mo

(10 a km 2) 6.9 (6) 0.49 (11) 0.24 (s)

43.0 (a) 0.028 (a) 0.56 (14) 0.36 (is) 15 (16) 0.087 (59) 15 (16) 0.33 (17) 17 (a) 2.0 (a) 0.15 (2) 2000 (22) 0.21 (24) 0.033 (25) 0.12 (26) 67 (27) 0.038 (26) 0.12 (33) 820 (29) 2.9 (31) 125 (34) 3.4 (36) 0.026 (as) 0.23 (26) 0.0083 (40)
2 0 (42)

18.5 (1) 0.45 (12) 0.78 (14) 0.43 (15) 9.6 (16) 0.132 (59) 9.6 (16) 0.39 (17) 19 (18) 1.4 (19) 0.22 (20) 200 (23) 0.57 (24)
0 . 1 6 (25)

0.35 (26) 44 (28) 0.24 (26) 1.0 (33) 130 (30) 2.1 (32) 78 (35) 4.0 (36) 0.26 (39) 0.42 (26) 0.1 (40)
11.2 (42)

6.7 (43) 8.0 (46) 5.8 (4s) 8.0 (4) 7.8 (2) 6.6 (2) 7.8 (4) 6.6 (s3) 7.7 (4) 7.1 (44) 7.3 (4)

0.067 (44) 28 (47) 0.019 (49) 6.0 (50) 22.0 (51) 0.034 (s2) 10.0 (42) 0.12 (54) 6.7 (56) 0.83 (Ss) 1.0 (58)

0.45 (45) 15 (47) 0.06 (49) 4.0 (50) 15.3 (51) 0.19 (52) 9.1 (42) 0.28 (55) 6.0 (56) 1.6 (Ss) 1.6 (Ss)

REFERENCES TO TABLE 1 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) G u t e n b e r g a n d Richter (1954) U s a m i (1966) or J M A (Japan Meteorological Agency) K a n a m o r i , unpublished data USCGS. M s (1) a n d average of 17 stations ( K a n a m o r i a n d M i y a m u r a , 1970) Average of K a n a m o r i (1971b) a n d A n d o (1971)

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY REFERENCESTO TABLE1 - - C o n t i n u e d (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37) (38) (39) (40) (41) (42) (43) (44) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (55) (56) (57) (58) (59)

1079

Average of (3), Kasahara (1957), and Chinnery (1964) Average of (3), Kasahara (1957), Chinnery (1964), and Iida (1959) Abe (1974a) Kanamori (1971a) Average of Kanamori (1973) and Kasahara (1957) (3) and the aftershock area Richter (1958) Average of Brune and Allen (1967) and Byerly and DeNoyer (1958) Kanamori (1972b) Kanamori (1972a) Kanamori (1973) (3) and Utsu and Seki (1954) (3) and Richter (1955) Savage and Hastie (1966) Rothe (1969) Average of Plafker and Savage (1970), Kanamori and Cipar (1974) and Kanamori and Anderson (1975) Average of Plafker (1972) and Kanamori and Cipar (1974) Average of (3) and Kawasaki (1975) Abe (1974b) Udias (1971) Average of Kanamori (1970a) and Ben-Menahem and Rosenman (1972) Average of Kanamori (1970a), Santo (1964), and Ben-Menahem and Rosenman (1972) Average of Savage and Hastie (1966), Kanamori (1970b), Abe (1970), Ben-Menahem, Rosenman and Israel (1972), and Alewine and Jungels (1973) Average of Algermissen et al. (1969), Savage and Hastie (1966), and Kanamori (1970b) Average of Aki (1966), Hirasawa (1965), and Abe (1975b) Average of Aki (1966), Kayano (1968), Hirasawa (1965), and Abe'(1975b) Udias and Arroyo (1970) Average of Ben-Menahem and Rosenman (1972) and Wu and Kanamori (1973) Average of Jordan et al. (1965), Ben-Menahem and Rosenman (1972), and Wu and Kanamori (1973) Abe (1972a) Wu (1968) Average of Tsai and Aki (1969), Scholz et al. (1969), and Trifunac and Udwadia (1974) Average of Eaton et al. (1970) and Trifunac and Udwadia (1974) Tsai and Aki (1970) Average of Pasadena and Berkeley Abe (t972a) Average of nine stations Hanks and Wyss (1972) Average estimated from surface rupture and aftershock area quoted in Hanks and Wyss (1972) Average of JMA, Pasadena and Berkeley Kanamori (1971c) Average of Abe (1975a) and JMA Abe (1975b) Fukao (1973) Abe (1973) Average of (3) and Mikumo (1973b) Average of 39 stations Average of Wyss (1971), Wyss and Hanks (1972), Canitez and Toks6z (1972), Mikumo (1973a), Savage et al. (1975), Jungels and Frazier (1973), Trifunac" (1974) and Alewine (1974) Average of Allen et al (1971), Wyss and Hanks (1972), Canitez and Toks6z (1972), Mikumo (1973a), Trifunac (1974), Savage et al. (1973) and Whitcomb et al. (1973). Shimazaki (1974) Average of seven stations (44), Ambraseys and Zatopek (1969) and Ambraseys and Tchalenko (1969) Ando (1974)

1080

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

The most striking feature of Figure 2 is the remarkable linearity with a slope of 2/3 between log S and log Mo. This linearity is usually explained in terms of "constant stress drop". For constant rigidity this implies "constant strain drop." For a circular fault, we have from (1) and (5)
M o = p S D = 16 Atra 3

7-

= \ 7~]

//16 Ao'~ S3/2

(6)

or

3 log M o = 2 log S + log (16 Ao'/77z3/2).

(7)

Thus, for a constant Ao-, log S ,,~ 2 log M o as shown in Figure 2. For rectangular faults, the constant term depends on the square root of the aspect ratio, w/L. We will use the simplest circular model for the purpose of the present discussion. Figure 2 shows the relation (7) for four different stress drops. The most remarkable feature is that the large inter-plate earthquakes for which both S and Mo are most accurately (perhaps _ 30 per cent) determined align with a very small scatter between the lines for 10 and 100 bars. A stress drop of 30 bars is indicated for this group of earthquakes. On .the other hand, intra-plate earthquakes indicate systematically larger stress drops, about 100 bars. This conclusion is in general agreement with the observation that several intra-plate earthquakes involve higher stresses (Sykes and Sbar, 1973). Molnar and Wyss (1972) found that some events that occur within either the Pacific or Australian plates have higher stress drops than events with the same moment that occur on the boundary of these two plates. If no distinction is made between intra-ptate and inter-plate earthquakes, a gross average of 60 bars may be used as a representative value of stress drop for large earthquakes. This stress drop corresponds to a strain drop of (60 106)/ (3 x 1012) ~ 2 x 10 -4 which agrees, within a factor of two or so, with a value suggested by Tsuboi 0956) for the critical strain of the Earth's crust. Chinnery (1964) and Aki (1972b) concluded, although on relatively few data, that the stress drop in shallow earthquakes is 10 to 100 bars. The more complete data-set presented here substantiates this conclusion. This type of general relation has also been found for smaller earthquakes by Wyss and Brune (1968), Thatcher and Hanks (1973), and Ishida (1974), but the scatter is much larger, the stress drop ranging from 0.5 to 300 bars. This large scatter may partly represent small scale heterogeneity of the stress field in the crust, but is also due to errors in the dimensions which are determined, in most cases, from the "corner frequency". Since the stress drop is proportional to the cube of the corner period, a small error in the corner period results in a considerable error in the stress drop. q-he small scatter in the log S versus log Mo diagram for larger earthquakes strongly indicates that the constant stress-drop model (i.e., constant strain drop, D/L) is a very good model for large earthquakes.
MAGNITUDE VERSUS MOMENT

The surface-wave magnitude M s is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of surface waves at a period of 20 sec, while the seismic moment M o is measured, in principle, at infinitely long period. Since surface-wave energy is ultimately derived from

T H E O R E T I C A L BASIS O F SOME E M P I R I C A L R E L A T I O N S I N S E I S M O L O G Y

1081

elastic-wave radiation from the source, the dependence of surface-wave amplitude on the spacio-temporal characteristics of the source should be governed by equation (3), or similar relations. Thus, the relation between M o and M s can be obtained directly from (3), if we introduce the following similarity conditions L
W

Cl

const

(aspect ratio)

(8)

L = c2 = const
V'C -- =

(strain drop)

(9)

C3 =

const

(dynamic similarity).

(10)

(8) represents a geometrical similarity which seems reasonable for most earthquakes. (9) represents constant Aa (or strain drop) which is shown, in the preceding section, to be valid for large earthquakes, and (10) represents a dynamic similarity which implies constant effective stress. This last point will be discussed later. With the similarity conditions (8) and (9)the seismic moment Mo = p S D ,.~ L 3. On the other hand, the magnitude M s is proportional to log luc(co)[ at co = coo = 2 n / T o (To = 20 sec). If we consider the "average azimuth" O = x/2, then

M s ,.~ log | D L w

sln

COO'[

coo LI-1
sin ~- ~ l

coo t

(11)

_1

The function

I. co0 l I. cooL

in the above relation takes the following asymptotic values depending on "cand L/v
vT - L -1

~L 1 To - L_ 1
71; T

if~ < T and L- > To 7r v i f r > T a n d L < To

F(r, L/v) ,'. To z v 1

L_ 2

i f z > To a n d L > To
71: /3 7/:

1 -- L

i f z < T a n d -L < To.

1082 Thus

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

log L z

if'r < To and L > To 7E /2 /~ if > __Tand L_ < _T o

log L 2
M~ ~

log L

if "r > T- and _L > _T

log L 3

if "r < To and L

TO
7~

Figure 3 shows the dependence o f M s on L in the four quadrants on (~, L/v) plane. Although determinations of the rise time ~ are relatively few, available data for about ten
~'"I ' ' ' I

IOO 50
I_)

I
-

Ms~ Log L 2
Log MO" 1.5 M s

t~amchatka

I'

Ms--- log Ls~ I

/ /

Kern ~ i n , l I r

, i I~-I ~
I Kitamin( 'c

ai'kfield ~ [/
.J

"
o

Io Giful~l I~ IIIWokoso B. LI FI I!I Soitama ,-5 F--[ ~h ~, Fe;nondo /

L/v = 20/=

I-[lMs-lOg LSl / log M /

! , r = 2.~_0

Ms~ Log L 2

Log MO"I.5
i I lllJl,/
0.5 I

Msl
Ioo

p i I I III
5

Io

I Ill

50

T, sec
FIG. 3. Relations between rupture time L/v and rise time ~. The dependence of Ms on L and Mo is shown for each quadrant. The earthquake data are taken from the references in Table 1, and BenMenahem and Toks6z (1963) for the Kamchatka earthquake. earthquakes fall mostly within the quadrant for M s "~ log L z as shown in Figure 3. Thus for most large earthquakes for which M s can be determined, we may put M s N log L z. Combining this with M o ~ L 3 we have 3 log m o ~ 2 M s . (12)

The physical interpretation o f these results is as follows; ~ < To/n corresponds to "rapid" rise-time events ( < 6 sec). Compared to 20 sec, most seismic events can be considered to have rapid rise times because o f the efficiency of generation o f 1-sec P waves. Therefore, M s ~ log L 2 or log L 3 will hold for the majority o f events. The term L / v is roughly equivalent to the total time duration o f faulting. F o r reasonable propagation velocities the inequality L / v > To/~ is almost certainly satisfied for L > 18 k m or M s > 6.5. Therefore, most large earthquakes will satisfy M s N log L 2.

T H E O R E T I C A L BASIS O F SOME E M P I R I C A L R E L A T I O N S I N SEISMOLOGY

1083

Very small earthquakes with short rise times and small dimension are likely to satisfy M s ,,~ l o g L 3. The conditions z > T o / ~ and L / v > T o / ~ may be appropriate for slow precursors (Kanamori and Anderson, 1975), tsunami-generating earthquakes of moderate magnitude and mid-Atlantic ridge events which generate large surface waves but small body waves. For large dimension earthquakes with long rise times M s "~ log L. We have discussed only surface-wave magnitude but the same arguments hold for body-wave magnitude except that characteristic times are now to be compared with 1 sec rather than 20 sec. In this case, only very small earthquakes can be expected to scale as m b ,,~ log L 3 and more earthquakes can be expected to satisfy the mb ~ log L 31

30

29 E O
I "O

2; _3
t3~ O

27

26

25

24

Ms

FIG. 4. Relation between Ms (20-secsurface-wavemagnitude) and Mo. The straight lines are for constant apparent stress. A rigidity of 3 x 1011 dyne/cm2 is used. scaling. However, the validity of the similarity conditions is not very obvious for small earthquakes, and the scaling relations may be more complicated (Aki, 1972a). Since the relation between magnitude and fault length depends on the period of the seismic wave being observed, the M s - mb relation will not be linear over a large magnitude range. Most explosions probably satisfy M s and mb ~ log L 3 (where L is the cavity radius). Figure 3 indicates an approximately linear trend between the observed L / v and z which justifies the dynamic similarity condition (10). Figure 3 also indicates that if the fault length exceeds a certain limit, 100 km or so, then the M s ~ log L 2 relation (i.e., log M o 3/2 M s ) should be replaced by M s ~ log L relation (i.e., log M o ~ 3 M s ) . Thus for extremely large earthquakes, such as the 1960 Chilean, 1964 Alaskan, and 1965 Rat Island earthquakes, we expect a log M o ~ 3 M s relation. Figure 4 shows the relation between

1084

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

log Mo and M s for earthquakes listed in Table 1. The slope of 3/2 is indicated by the straight lines in the figure. Although the scatter is considerable, the general trend is consistent with a slope of 3/2 except for very large earthquakes which indicate a much steeper slope corresponding to the log Mo N 3 M s relation discussed above. Thus, for large earthquakes, the simple dynamic dislocation model with the similarity conditions seems to be an adequate model. In the above, we used a one-dimensional unilateral rupture. In actual faulting, however, the rupture can be two-dimensional, rectangular (Hirasawa and Stauder, 1965) or circular (Savage, 1966; Sato and Hirasawa, 1973), and bilateral, symmetric or asymmetric, and the critical values o f L/v and depend on the mode of rupture. For example, for bilateral faultings, L in (11) should be replaced by L/2. For circular faults, Sato and Hirasawa (1973) showed (their figure 4) that the critical value of L/v is about To/n. These differences in rupture mode, however, would not drastically affect the present conclusion. Also, we considered the "average azimuth" O = n/2, but this choice does not affect the present results either. Haskell (1964) integrated

Ogtc]

I
over the whole space, and obtained a function B2(~o) which is similar to
. o~L/~oL'~

(figure 4 in Haskell, 1964). Using this function leads to about the same critical value
o f L/v.

The same conclusion may be reached by using Aki's (1967) statistical model with the same similarity conditions. Although the statistical parameters kr~ and kr do not explicitly represent specific physical quantities, it seems reasonable, in view of the similarity conditions, to put k L- 1 L and k T- 1 ~ ,~. 3-hen, it follows from (4) that
N

log L 2
log L 2

1 To 1 To for v~L > ~ and ~ < 2~r-for ~

1
1

To 1 To < ~ and kT > 2~

Ms ~

log L log L 3 Thus for the first two cases we have

for ~ for ~

To 1 To > 27r and kr > 2~

To 1 To < ~ and kr < 2re--"

log M o ~ ~ M s . The preceding discussion is analogous to Aki (1967); however, Aki more or less arbitrarily put vk L = k T (dotted line in Figure 3), and therefore his sealing law predicts an abrupt transition from log Mo ~ 3 M s to log Mo ~ M s (see figure 4 of Aki, 1972a). As shown in Figure 3, the observed data for and L seem to suggest L/v ,~ 10z or kr ~ 10 VkL,

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY

1085

and therefore log Mo ~ 3/2 Ms for a considerable range of magnitude. The observed values of Mo and Ms shown in Figure 4 clearly show that this relation holds for large earthquakes. Aki's emphasis is on the overall difference in the sFectral characteristics between large and small earthquakes, and replacing k r "~ vkz by k r ,,~ 10 VkL would not significantly affect his conclusions, as Aki (1967) mentioned briefly. Brune and King (1967), Brune (1968), and Brune and Engen (1969) introduced log Mo versus Ms diagrams which consist of two segments each having a slope of 1. Since they determined the moment at 100-sec period, their relation cannot be directly compared with Figure 4. The dynamic similarity condition vz/L = const can be given the following physical meaning. The rise time of the dislocation function depends on the effective stress. Brurle (1970) showed that the effective stress ae,o (the initial tectonic stress, ao, minus the frictional stress, as, opposing the fault motion, i.e., ae,o = ao-tr I) and the dislocation particle velocity b are related by /) = 2 -'-fl #
O'e o

(14)

for infinite rupture velocity. For finite rupture velocity (v ~ fi), it can be shown that (Kanamori, 1972b)
~ O-e, 0 --.

(15)

Since/) ,-~ D/z, a n d / ) ,-~ L, similarity condition (9), (15) suggests

N ~re~o -1

(16)

Thus the dynamic similarity condition is equivalent to constant effective stress. Since determinations of effective stress are very few, the constancy of the effective stress is not so well established as that of the stress drop. However, the data, plotted in Figure 3, showing vz/L ,,~ constant, and a determination of the effective stress in the frequency domain by Trifunac (1972) suggest that the effective stress is, on the average, about constant for large earthquakes. This is reasonable since the effective stress is even more a material property than the stress drop.
MAGNITUDE 'VERSUS ENERGY

The relation between the surface-wave magnitude Ms and the total energy of seismic waves Es has been studied by many investigators, among others, Gutenberg and Richter (1956) and B~tth (1958). After several revisions Gutenberg and Richter (1956) obtained a relation l o g E s = 1.5Ms+ll.8 (17)

(see Richter, 1958, page 366. The constant 11.4 used in this reference is a misprint, and should read 11.8). B~tth (1958) integrated the surface wave trains to establish the relation between the surface-wave energy e s and Ms. Combining this relation with a relation between e~ and the total energy~ E s, B~th (1958) finally arrived at a relation log E s = 1.44 Ms+ 12.24 (18)

which is very similar to (17). Ms represents the level of the energy spectrum at 20 sec while E s represents the integral of the spectrum over the entire frequency band. Thus,

1086

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

implicit in (17) or (18) is a certain similarity condition by which the energy spectral density at 20-sec period can represent the whole spectrum, or at least the integral of the spectrum. The above relations (17) and (18) imply that
Es ,.~ 101.5 ~ts

(19)

This relation, of course, has been introduced empirically, but we shall show in the following that it can be explained in terms of the simple dislocation model we used in the previous section. Using the amplitude spectral density [uc(co)[ and the same approximations as we used before, we have
I . (DT 2

fo~
E~ ~ ~o~lu(~o)[
d~o ~ t~w~9 ~

f,
~o ~

sln~
- -

sincL 2 2vl d~o

o
~ ~ v}

12 2o,
sin _y2 s i n 2 Y Z
(x)=f:y2-~_22-

where

Isin~f

(21)
dy.

Using the similarity conditions (8), (9) and (10), we have (L/w) = const and L2w2D2/'C 3 L a; therefore
~

Es ~ L 3. Remembering
M s ~ log L 2

(22)

(23)

for large earthquakes, we have, from (22)

which is the empirical relation (19). Aki's (1967) statistical model leads to the same since (4) gives
Es ~

(w 2 D2L 2)

(.02

7~ W2D2L2(kT)2(kLV)

1 k~v + kT

La

where the similarity conditions (8), (9) and (10) are used. Brune's (1970) model also leads to E s ~ L 3 as shown by Hanks and Thatcher (1972). It is interesting at this point to compare (22) with the energy relation (2) for the static model. The seismic-wave energy E s may be expressed by
Es = 11 A W = ~ISDe = q- Mo~

(24)

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS I N SEISMOLOGY

1087
,-~ L 2,

where q is the seismic efficiency. If we use the similarity conditions,/) ~ L, and S we have
E s = q - M o ~ ~ r16 L 3

(25)

where a a = r/6 is the apparent stress (Aki, 1966; Wyss, 1970). Comparison of this with (22) implies that the apparent stress 0.a is constant (i.e., independent of L) for large earthquakes. This is a rather important result which simply arises from the fact that the simple dislocation model together with the similarity conditions predict E s ,., L 3, while a simple static model predicts E s ~ cr, L 3 dependence. Combining (25) and the Gutenberg-Richter energy relation (17), we have log M o = I. 5 M s + (11.8 - log (0.a/fl))" (26)

This relation can be compared with the observed log M o versus M s plo{ shown by Figure 4. As discussed before, for very large earthquakes with fault lengths exceeding 100 km or so (e.g., Chile, 1960; Alaska, 1964; Rat Island, 1965), this relation is not valid. The data points for these earthquakes are bracketed in Figure 4. Although the scatter is considerable, there is a trend that the intra-plate earthquakes have systematically higher o, than inter-plate earthquakes. Very crude estimates would be 0.a ~ 10 to 20 bars for inter-plate, aa ~ 50 bars for intra-plate, and aa ,,~ 30 bars for the "average" earthquake. Comparing these values with the values of stress drop A0. (Figure 2), we note that 0.a ~ A a . Although this result involves various uncertainties such as geometry, rigidity, rupture mode, energy-magnitude relation, etc., it is interesting to compare this with the Savage-Wood (1971) inequality o, < A0./2. (27)

This relation results from the fault model of Orowan (1960) and the assumption that the frictional stress 0.y during the slippage is greater than the final stress 0.,. In terms of the average stress 6, frictional stress as and the average dislocation, the efficiency r/may be written as ~-I / = ~D-0.sD = 6 - a s ~y/~
or

(28)

as = ff-0.a. Thus if~rs > 0.1 we have, from (29),

(29)

which is the Savage-Wood inequality. Our results 0.~ ~ Aa therefore suggests that the final stress is approximately equal to the frictional stress 0.f, i.e., 0.y ~ 0.1. For several earthquakes for which the effective stress O-e, and A0. are independently determined, the o results indicate 0.e,o ~ A0. (Kanamori, 1972b; Abe, 1974 a,b, 1975a). Since 0.e,o = 0 . o - 0 . s and A0. = 0.o-0.2, these results indicate 0.f = 0"1 which is consistent with the result obtained above. From (28), 0.f being replaced by a~, we have t/6-as _ e 6 2-e (30)

where e is the static fractional stress drop, e = zXa/0.o. By using (30), we can estimate 0.o, and t/ for intra-plate, inter-plate and "average" earthquakes for various values of

1088

HIROO KANAMORI AND DON L. ANDERSON

(or tr:/Cro). The results are shown in Table 2. Since the frictional stress cannot be determined by seismological methods alone, it is not possible to nail down the efficiency and the initial tectonic stress cro. The results in Table 2 are interesting, however, in relation to the recently developed dilatancy model of an earthquake. Laboratory experiments on rocks suggest that "kilobar stress" is necessary for the onset of dilatancy. On the other hand, earthquake data invariably suggest 10- to 100-bar stress (either stress drop or apparent stress), which is significantly lower than the laboratory stress. This disparity, however, can be removed, as Table 2 indicates, if a frictional stress is larger than 90 per cent of the tectonic stress; in this case only a part of a "kilobar" tectonic stress is released in earthquakes. Wyss and Molnar (1972) suggested a value of 0.01 to 0.1 for for Denver, Colorado, earthquakes.
TABLE 2 FRACTIONAL STRESS DROP (e), FRACTIONAL FRICTIONAL STRESS tT:/ao, EFFICIENCY (t/), INITIAL TECTONIC STRESS (frO), STRESS DROP (Aa) FOR INTER-PLATE, INTRA-PLATE, AND AVERAGE EARTHQUAKES* tro (bar) e cry -Oo
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.9 0.95 0.99

Inter-plate Intra-plate "Average" (Act: 30 bar) (At,= 100 bar) (A~r~60 bar) 30 38 50 75 150 300 600 3000 100 125 170 250 500 1000 2000 10000 60 76 100 150 300 600 1200 6000

1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.01

1.0 0.67 0.43 0.25 0.11 0.053 0.026 "0.005

* %~era = 1 - e, ~ / = e l ( 2 - e ) , fro = Acr/e.

It should be noted that various assumptions and simplifications have been made in the above discussion. For example, the possible change in gravitational energy associated with earthquake faulting (Jungels and Frazier, 1973) is not considered. Inclusion of this type of energy would affect the energy budget and, therefore, the efficiency. Also, generation of high-frequency energy may not be properly modeled by the simple dislocation model used here. This high-frequency energy is to some extent taken care of by the empirical constant 11.8 in the log E s versus M s relation, but detailed discussions are not possible unless more precise estimates of the energy are made in the near-field.
M A G N I T U D E VERSUS F A U L T AREA

The simple dislocation model, with the similarity conditions, leads to a straightforward relation between M s and the fault surface area S. For a circular crack, we have from (2) and (24),
E s = r / A W = 16

7-~ ~

-3/2yid. Ao, S3/2 "

Combining this with the log E s versus Ms relation, and eliminating Es, we have 2j log S = Ms+8.13-~, l o g\~t/A~o" ) [-- a
,

(31)

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY

1089

Thus, if Aa and ~. are constant as we have shown, log S should be proportional to Ms. In fact Utsu and Seki (1954) found a linear relation log S = 1.02 M - 4 . 0 1 (S in square kilometers) between the aftershock area and the magnitude (Figure 5). The aftershock area may be considered approximately equal to the fault area. The magnitude scale used by Utsu and Seki (1954) is the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) scale which is not the regular surface-wave magnitude Ms, but is calibrated against Ms closely (Tsuboi, 1957). Figure 5 includes the data listed in Table 1 but not used by Utsu and Seki (1954). As shown in Figure 5, the data points for the 1960 Chilean earthquake, the 1964 Alaskan earthquake and the 1965 Rat Island earthquake deviate significantly from the general trend. This deviation is due to the inappropriateness of the E s versus M s relation for such large earthquakes with very large fault dimensions. Except for these earthquakes, the
6
-

'

'

'
// /"

/.~

Ms vs. Fault Area o Utsu and Seki (1955) Additional Data

(o)1~" (e)23 / / 1

~4__-:
~ n - -

//oOo
./o

o ~ , ~ oj L . \0
e34 ./

-~
//_5--

o o o _~o ~ o /~ /.39

_I

o .o~Io'~m o

el4

/"

3_ /

o
0

/9/~28
0"0

o
// /

.//
.

=
__C

el5

e..~l)e 19

/ / / / 2 7 o\e-56 ,18 / / ~\21 //

//I

,
7.5

I
8.0

33 6.0

6.5

7.0

8.5

9.0

Ms
F;G. 5. Relation between Ms a n d S (aftershock area, fault surface area). T h e straight lines are for c o n s t a n t a p p a r e n t stress. T h e rigidity Ft a n d stress drop of 3 x 10 t t d y n e / c m 2 a n d 60 bars are used.

general trend gives a slope of 1.0. If we use Aa = 60 bars for the "average" earthquakes, a, of 2 to 70 bars is consistent with the data. As shown in Figure 5, aa = 7 bars gives a relation which is very close to the Utsu and Seki (1954) relation. In other words, the Gutenlzerg-Richter relation log Es = 1.5 M s + l l . 8 and the Utsu-Seki relation log S = M s - 4 (S in square kilometers) suggest o-a ~ 7 bars under the assumptions of circular fault, p = 3 1011 dyne/cm 2 and Aa = 60 bars. The relatively large scatter in the Ms versus log S diagram is partly due to the ambiguity in the aftershock area. Utsu and Seki (1954) did not clearly define it, but they seem to have taken the area which includes all of the aftershocks during a considerably long period of time after the main shock. The aftershock area thus defined tends to overestimate the fault size. Nevertheless, i t is notable that this independent set of data suggests, aa of 2 to 70 bars in general agreement with the value estimated 'from the log Mo versus Ms relation, about 30 bars. B~th and Dude (1964) suggest a somewhat different relation log S = 1.21 M s - 5.05 (S in square kilometers)

which is in general agreement with Utsu and Seki (1954).

1090

HIROO KANAMORI

AND DON L. ANDERSON

Tsuboi (1956) assumed that the total energy of an earthquake E is given by E = ex 2 V where e is the effective elastic constant, x is the ultimate strain and V the "earthquake volume". Using this energy in the log E s versus M s relation, Tsuboi derived the Utsu and Seki (1954) relation. Implicit in his derivation are, in terms of the present model, the assumptions of complete stress drop (in the relation E = ex 2 V) and 100 percent efficiency (t/ --- 1.0). Thus Tsuboi's model is a special case of the present model. He used x = 10 -4 which corresponds to Aa = / ~ x = 30 bars. The assumption of complete stress drop and t/ = 1 gives t/tY = Act. Putting these into (31), we have log S = M s - 4.0 (S in square kilometers) which is essentially the Utsu and Seki (1954) relation. MAGNITUDE VERSUS FREQUENCY The magnitude-frequency relation is given by log N = a - b M s (32)

where N is the number of earthquakes in a certain magnitude range Ms+_AMs, or the number of earthquakes larger than Ms, in a certain area, and a and b are constants. Except for some volcanic events, the value of b has been found to be very close to 1. This result can be explained in terms of a simple geometrical consideration. Consider an area E, and let N(Ms) and S(Ms) be the number and the fault area of earthquakes within a magnitude range around Ms in this area. Since the smaller the S(Ms), the more faults can be accommodated in Z, it seems reasonable to put
N(Ms)S(Ms) ~ X = const.

(33)

Then log N ,~ - l o g S. Combining this with (31), we have log N ,.~ M s. (34)

Thus the observation that the b value in the magnitude-frequency relation is close to 1 can be explained by a geometrical relation given by (33). It is important to note that the relation S N 10~s we used above came from E s ,,~ 10 ~'5/~s to which we gave a physical explanation on the basis of the simple dislocation model. The recurrence time of an earthquake of magnitude M is proportional to N -~, thus z ,-~ N - 1 ~ S ~ L 2. This implies that if the rate of various processes associated with earthquakes, such as strain rate, etc., is uniform, other times such as various precursor times scale the same. The z ,-~ L 2 relation does not imply diffusion. DISCUSSION We have determined the following theoretical relationships, log Mo = 1.5 log S + l o g Ao-+log C where C = 16/77za/2 (circular faults) (strike slip) (dip slip).

= (Tr/2)(w/L) 1/2

= n(2+2#)(w/L)~/2/4(2+#)

THEORETICAL BASIS OF SOME EMPIRICAL RELATIONS IN SEISMOLOGY

109I

The seismic data are consistent with this relation and imply stress drops, Ao-, of 30 and 100 bars, respectively, for inter-plate and intra-plate earthquakes. Radiated elastic energy, E s , is

Mo
#

Therefore log E s = log M o + log (~l~//z) = 1.5 log S + log Ao"+ log (q6) + log C. The apparent stress, cra = ~/6, is 10 to 20 bars and 50 bars, respectively, for inter-plate and intra-plate earthquakes. Therefore t16 ~ A a / 2 . By assuming geometric and dynamic similarity we obtain
M s = log(DLnw)+b

= logLn+2+b'

where n = + 1, 0, - 1 depending on the ordering of the characteristic times, z and to, and the measurement period T o ( ~ 20 sec for M s and ~ 1 sec for rob);
Ms ~ Ms ~ M s "~

log E z ~

(2/3) log Mo ~ (2/3) log E s (most moderate to large earthquakes)

log E ,-~ (1/3) log M o ~ (1/3) log E s (long rise time large events) log L 3 ~ log M o ,,. log E s (very small earthquakes).

The relation log E s ~ 1.5 M s is the Gutenberg-Richter relation and is appropriate for most events. However, log E s ~ 3 M s and log E s ~ M s hold for the special cases noted above. The geometric similarity condition w ,,~ L may break down for large earthquakes if there is a maximum depth over which brittle fracture occurs. This may hold for large transform-fault events where w < 20 km regardless of the length. In this case, w ,,~ const and, from A~ ~ D / w = const, 13 ~ const. Therefore ~ ,,~ D / v = const, and, from (l 1), M s ,~ L . Thus the magnitude does not depend on fault length although the moment, M o = ~ D w L ~ L , does.

CONCLUSION

An extensive data-set of the seismic moment M o and the fault surface area, S, for large earthquakes ( M s > 6) demonstrates a remarkably linear relation between log S and log M o with a slope of 2/3 indicating a constant stress drop, Aa, for large earthquakes. Ao- = 30, 100 and 60 bars are suggested for inter-plate, intra-plate and "average" earthquakes, resFectivety. Except for very large earthquakes, the relation log M o ~ 1.5 M s (20-sec surface-wave magnitude) is established by the data for large earthquakes. This relation can be explained in terms of a spectral shape of seismic radiation predicted by a very simple dislocation model such as Haskell's (1964). This dislocation model predicts a relation log E s ~ 1.5 M s ( E s , the total radiated wave energy) consistent with the empirical M s versus E s relation of Gutenberg and Richter (1956) and B{tth (1958). The model also predicts E s "~ L 3 (L, the representative fault dimension) which in turn suggests a constant apparent stress since the static energy is also proportional to L 3. An apparent stress about half the stress drop is suggested. These relations lead to log S ,,, M s consistent with the empirical relation suggested by Utsu and Seki (1954). The magnitude-frequency relation log N ( M s ) ~ -Ms ( N ( M s ) is the number of

1092

HIROO KANAMORIAND DON L. ANDERSON

earthquakes in magnitude range a r o u n d Ms) can then be interpreted in terms of a simple geometrical model N ( M s ) . S ( M s ) = c o n s t a n t where S(Ms) is the fault surface area. A l t h o u g h the values of the stress implied by seismic data are low, 10 to 100 bars, it is possible that the tectonic stress is very high (,-~ kilobars) a n d that only a small fraction of it is released in earthquakes, the frictional stress being high.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Tom Hanks and Bob Geller for useful discussions. This research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense and was monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Contract F44620-72-C-0078,and Earth Sciences Section of the National Science Foundation under Grant DES74-22489.

REFERENCES Abe, K. (1970). Determination of seismic moment and energy from the earth's free oscillation, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 4, 49-61. Abe, K. (1972a). Lithospheric normal faulting beneath the Aleutian trench, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 5 190-198. Abe, K. (1972b). Mechanisms and tectonic implications of the 1966 and 1970 Peru earthquakes, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 5, 367-379. Abe, K. (1973). Tsunami and mechanism of great earthquakes, Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 7, 143-153. Abe, K. (1974a). Seismic displacement and ground motion near a fault: The Saitama earthquake of September 21, 1931,J. Geophys. Res. 79, 4393M399. Abe, K. (1974b). Fault parameters determined by near- and far-field data: The Wakasa Bay earthquake of March 26, 1963, Bull. Seism. Soe. Am. 64, 1369-1382. Abe, K. (1975a). Static and dynamic parameters of the Saitama earthquake of July 1, 1968, Teetonophysics (in press). Abe, K. (1975b). A fault model for the Niigata earthquake of 1964, J. Phys. Earth. (in press). Aki, K. (1966). Generation and propagation of G waves from the Niigata earthquake of June 16, 1964, Bull. Earthquake Res. Inst., Tokyo Univ. 44, 23-88. Aki, K. (1967). Scaling law of seismic spectrum, J. Geophys. Res. 72, 1217-1231. Aki, K. (1972a). Scaling law of earthquake source time-function, Geophys. J. 31 3-25. Aki, K. (1972b). Earthquake mechanism, Tectonophysies 13, 423-446. Alewine, R. W. III (1974). Application of linear inversion theory toward the estimation of seismic source parameters, Thesis, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Alewine, R. W. III and P. H. Jungels (1973). Application .of stochastic inversion theory and the finiteelement method to zero-frequency seismology: The 1964 Alaska earthquake, Caltech Preprint. Algermissen, S. T., W. A. Rinehart, R. W. Sherburne, and W. H. Dillinger, Jr. (1969). Preshocks and aftershocks of the Prince William Sound earthquake of March 28, 1964, in The prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake of 1964 and afiershoeks, Vol. 2, L. E. Leipold, Editor, pp. 79-130, U.S. Department of Commerce, EnvironmentalScience ServicesAdministration,Washington, D.C. Allen, C. R., G. R. Engen, T. C. Hanks, J. M. Nordquist, and W. R. Thatcher (1971). Main shock and larger aftershocks of the San Fernando earthquake, February 9 through March 1, 1971, U.S. Geol. Surv. Profess. Paper 733, 17-20. Ambraseys, N. N. and J. S. Tchalenko (1969). The Dasht-e-Bayaz (Iran)earthquake of August 31, 1968: A field report, Bull. Seism. Soe. Am. 59, 1751-1792. Ambraseys, N. N. and A. Zatopek (1969). The Mudurnu Valley, West Anatolia, Turkey, earthquake of July 22, 1967, Bull. Seism. Soe. Am. 59, 521-589. Ando, M~ (1971). A fault-origin model of the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 as deduced from geodetic data, Bull. Earthquake Res. Inst., Tokyo Univ. 49, 19-32. Ando, M. (1974). Faulting in the Mikawa earthquake of 1945, Teetonophysies22, 173-186. Bgtth, M. (1958). The energies of seismic body waves and surface waves, in Contributions in Geophysics: In Honor of Beno Gutenberg, H. Benioff, M. Ewing, B. F. Howell, Jr., and F. Press, Editors, Pergamon Press, New York, pp. 1-16. Bgtth, M. and S. J. Duda, (1964). Earthquake volume, fault plane area, seismic energy, strain, deformation and related quantities, Ann. Geofis. (Rome) 17, 353-368.

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