An Extended Global Catalogue of Giant (Mw &[ge] 8.8) Earthquakes

• Main Authors: Onur, Tuna, Muir-Wood, Robert
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) 2014
• Subjects: Kamchatka; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.4231/d3mw28f7z; https://nees.org/resources/12495

Earthquakes with Mw of greater than 8.7 are distinguished by extensive regional damage from seismic shaking as well as the size of the tsunami generated, typically causing at least 1m of tsunami runup across an ocean in addition to being devastating in the near-field. Additionally, the 40-year hiatus after the 1952-1964 trio of great earthquakes (1952 Mw9.0 Kamchatka, 1960 Mw9.6 Chile, and 1964 Mw9.0 Alaska) and the recent trio of great earthquakes in short succession (2004 Mw9.0 Sumatra-Andaman, 2010 Mw8.8 Chile, and 2011 Mw9.0 Japan) have sparked discussions around temporal clustering of great earthquakes. Most currently available earthquake catalogues start recording events around 1900, when seismic instrumentation started. However, this is too short a record to adequately study great earthquakes. In this study, we aim to extend the great earthquake catalogue by at least two centuries taking advantage of the large scale impact these earthquakes (and their accompanying tsunamis) have caused in the near- and far-fields. For each event in the catalogue, we make estimates for moment magnitude and rupture extent based on various lines of evidence such as recorded tsunami runup near- and far-fields, amplitude and duration of reported earthquake shaking, evidence of land-level changes such as offshore uplift and near-shore subsidence, and any paleoseismic studies that are available.