Attenuation of Macroseismic Intensity for Crustal Romanian Earthquakes: Calibrating the Bakun-Wentworth’s Method

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to elaborate a new model of the macroseismic intensity attenuation using all observed intensities data for the crustal earthquakes in Romania and then, based on this relationship, to calibrate the Bakun-Wentworth method, one of the modern methods most used to estimate the parameters of the historical earthquakes (localization, moment magnitude-Mw). The study is based on 14 calibrating earthquakes (4.5 < Mw < 5.7, 811 IDPs, II < Ii < VIIIO EMS) and 7 validation earthquakes (3.5 < Mw < 5.4, 215 IDPs, II <Ii < VIIIO EMS) produced mainly in western part of Romania and for which the reported macroseismic intensities were revised in a homogeneous manner and their locations and moment magnitudes were instrumentally determined. The method was tested using earthquakes produced in neighbouring regions, expanding its application space for earthquakes produced, for example, in the extra-Carpathian areas and Pannonian Depression. The comparative analysis with the results obtained with other methods confirms the high performance and the scientific rigour of the new attenuation relationship and of the Bakun-Wentworth method and their effective applicability for testing and validation of the results obtained in the process of the Romanian earthquakes catalogue revision.