Sobre la medida del tamaño del terremoto y la peligrosidad sísmica en España/ On earthquake size measures and seismic hazard in Spain

Abstract

The influence of earthquake size parameters contained on seismic catalogues on seismic hazard assessment studies is discussed. The topic is illustrated in the Spanish context, characterized by moderate seismic activity and consequently, limited availability of seismic data. The different objectives pursued by seismic catalogue providers and users (in this case, earthquake hazard analysts) may cause misunderstandings and possibly misuses of catalogued size parameters. As an example, it is shown that magnitude data sets should be treated separately depending on the geographic area considered. Accordingly, region-dependent correlations between magnitude scales, required for implementing seismic hazard analyses, are presented. Results of this work underline the need of composing earthquake catalogues with homogeneous earthquake size parameters not only for historical events, but also for recent and future ones.