Kevin J. Coppersmith

Increasingly, fault slip rates are being used to constrain earthquake recurrence relationships for site-specific probabilistic seismic hazard (ground motion) assessments. This paper shows the sensitivity of seismic hazard assessments to variations in recurrence models and parameters that incorporate fault slip rates.

Source parameters for historical earthquakes worldwide are compiled to develop a series of empirical relationships among moment magnitude (M), surface rupture length, subsurface rupture length, downdip rupture width, rupture area, and maximum and average displacement per event. The resulting data base is a significant update of previous compilations and includes the additional source parameters of seismic moment, moment magnitude, subsurface rupture length, downdip rupture width, and average surface displacement.

Paleoseismological data for the Wasatch and San Andreas fault zones have led to the formulation of the characteristic earthquake model, which postulates that individual faults and fault segments tend to generate essentially same size or characteristic earthquakes having a relatively narrow range of magnitudes near the maximum.

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