Source parameters and scaling relationships of earthquakes in Israel

Determination of earthquake dynamic source parameters such as the seismic moment, stress drop and rupture area are often based purely on theoretical considerations. In reality, however, some of the corrected coefficients utilized in the computations should preferably be defined empirically. In the present study, 39 earthquakes of M_L between 3.0 and 6.7 are used to define the correction coefficients associated with distance (geometric and unelastic attenuation) and ratios between zero frequency spectral amplitides of S-waves recorded by vertical and horizontal seismographs. These are used in turn to determine the seismic moment, M₀, and the empirical correlation between log M₀ and M_L magnitudes for that region. The validity of using constant stress drop assumption and correlation between moment and corner frequency is also discussed.