An updated and extended earthquake catalogue for Greece and adjacent areas since 1900

Abstract

Abstract. A homogeneous earthquake catalogue for Greece and adjacent areas covering the period 1900–2009 is presented, to be used for reliable seismic hazard studies. The catalogues of Makropoulos and Burton (1981) and Makropoulos et al. (1989), covering the time span 1900–1985, were updated for the period 1986–2009 using instrumentally determined focal coordinates, except for the magnitude from the bulletin of the ISC. For Ms, which is the magnitude scale included in the previous versions, the same procedure applied since 1964 was adopted, using the ISC body wave magnitude (mb) and a regression equation. In the present update, Mw is also calculated for the entire period 1900–2009 using a formula derived from all available moment magnitudes and directly determined by the moment tensor inversion method. Thus, a magnitude homogeneous catalogue concerning both Ms and Mw scales is presented. The extended catalogue contains 7352 events, 70% more than the 4310 events of the previous published (1989) version. The completeness test revealed that the catalogue is complete for magnitudes above 4 for the last 34 yr and that no earthquake with magnitude 6 or greater has been omitted in the whole instrumental era (1900–2009).