The relationship between teleseismic body-wave magnitude m and local magnitude ML from New Zealand earthquakes

Abstract

Relationships between the magnitudes M_L and m for 123 New Zealand earthquakes occurring between 1950 and 1967 and having 4.6 ≦ M_L ≦ 7.3 have been found. Deep- and shallow-focus shocks were considered separately. There is a linear relationship between M_L and m, the slope being the same for both deep and shallow events. Values of M_L for deep events are consistently 0.5 magnitude larger than those for shallow events having the same value of m. The relationship between m and M_L for New Zealand earthquakes differs significantly from that obtained by Gutenberg and Richter in California.