Statistical Studies Of Earthquake Magnitude

Earthquake magnitude is a fundamental concept in the earthquake research. This paper discusses the earthquake magnitude in probability and how to use statistical methods to analyse it.Treating the earthquake magnitude as a random variable, some common concepts in seismic studies are defined using probability theory, including seismic hazard, the average recurrence intervals, return level, and the average frequency of earthquake. Then this paper gives their statistical calculation methods.In this paper, the second major work is to investigate and estimate the distribu-tion of earthquake magnitude. This paper improves the energy-based model based on extreme value theory.Finally, we use GEV model, POT model, energy-based model and improved energy-based model to analyse the earthquake magnitude data from 1970 to 2013 in Yunnan. Also, we calculate some basic concepts such as the average recurrence intervals and return level. By comparison, we found that the improved model can largely enhance and improve energy-based model. It can process missing data and data existing aftershocks well, and it can be more flexible.