Peak ground displacement versus seconds after first arrival of P-wave at HR-GNSS sensors. Each color-coded bin lists Nev - number of events and Nrec - number of receivers. The dashed lines indicate roughly half the source duration for magnitude 7.5 and magnitude 8.0 earthquakes. The ground movement between the very large (red bin) and large (orange) earthquakes has already diverged well-before the half-duration of the magnitude 8.0 earthquake dashed line. Credit: Melgar and Hayes (2019).
A tale of time and magnitude
By Alka Tripathy-Lang
July 11, 2019
Can seismologists determine the size of an earthquake before the earthquake is over?
For the answer, continue reading on the IRIS website.
Citation: Melgar, D. and Hayes, G.P., 2019, Characterizing large earthquakes before rupture is complete. Science Advances. 5, 1-7. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aav2032