Seismic moments, local magnitudes, and coda-duration magnitudes for earthquakes in central California

Abstract Onscale seismograms recorded at stations in the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) central California seismic network (CALNET) have been used to estimate the seismic moment M0 and local magnitude ML for earthquakes of 1 ≦ ML ≦ 4 located on the San Juan Bautista and Parkfield sections of the San Andreas fault, the Coyote Lake section of the Calaveras fault, the Sargent fault, and near Livermore. These data, together with M0 and ML estimates for 4 ≦ ML ≦ 6 earthquakes in these areas, cannot be fit with a single linear log M0-versus-ML relation. Rather, the data are consistent with log M0 = 1.5 ML + 16 for 3 ≲ ML ≲ 6, with log M0 = 1.2 ML + 17 for 1 1/2 ≲ ML ≲ 3 1/2 and with a slope of ⅔ to 1 fro 1/2 ≲ ML ≲ 1 1/2. Whereas USGS coda duration magnitude MD is consistent with ML for 1 1/2 ≲ ML ≲ 3¼, MD is larger than ML at ML ≲ 1 1/2 and smaller than ML at ML ≳ 3¼. Log M0 can be estimated to a precision of 0.2 for 1 ≦ MD ≦ 3 1/2 earthquakes in central California by applying log M0 = 1.2 MD + 17 to the MD that have been routinely published by the USGS.