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IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy<br />

(S) - <strong>IASPEI</strong> - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's<br />

Interior<br />

JSS005 Oral Presentation 1910<br />

Magnitude distribution of linear morphogenic earthquakes in the<br />

Mediterranean Region: insights from palaeoseismological and historical<br />

data<br />

Prof. Riccardo Caputo<br />

Dept. Earth Sciences University of Ferrara <strong>IASPEI</strong><br />

Mucciarelli M., Pavlides S.<br />

We analyse the earthquake magnitude distribution of 'linear morphogenic earthquakes' that reactivated<br />

dip-slip normal faults within the Mediterranean Region. Information on past events is obtained following<br />

two distinct methodological approaches: the geological one (morphotectonic investigations coupled with<br />

palaeoseismological excavations) and the historical one (contemporaneous surveys of coseismic<br />

ruptures). In order to homogenise the different datasets, and therefore enabling a comparison, we<br />

calculated moment magnitudes (Mw) starting from seismic moments (M0) estimates. The cumulative<br />

distributions thus obtained for the two datasets show similarities and differences. To interpret these<br />

differences, we generate random datasets reproducing the distribution of the real data, based on the<br />

log-normal distributions of the coseismic vertical displacement and the rupture length. The analysis of<br />

larger synthetic catalogues suggests that coseismic displacements are systematically underestimated for<br />

moderate-to-strong palaeoseismologically-observed events (5.0-6.5), while the opposite occurs for very<br />

strong (>6.7) historically-observed past earthquakes. The possible causes and consequences for seismic<br />

hazard analyses are also discussed.<br />

Keywords: seismotectonic, holocene, seismic hazard

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