Abstract
An empirical formula for estimating duration magnitude(MD)is determined by analyzing 619 epicentral distance-duration data set, obtained from earthquakes of 1989-1998 recorded at the KMA network. Based on two assumptions: 1) observed signal duration decreases with increasing epicentral distance, and 2) seismographs of KMA are set at low-gain and therefore inclusion of sensitivity correction term in the equation is not necessary, scaling predicted duration at epicenter to Tsuboi's local magnitude yielded the duration magnitude equation: MD =2.0292$\times$log$\tau$＋0.00123Δ-1.4017 for 1/0$\leq$ML$\leq$5.0, where $\tau$is total signal duration(sec)and Δis epicentral distance(km). Event by event comparison of ML values against MD estimates for t152 events shows that for events having a same ML the difference in MD estimates reaches as high as 1.1 magnitude units. So, to test the usefulness of the duration magnitude equation, we have calculated ML-MD relations by which duration magnitude estimates are converted to local magnitudes ("predicted" ML, say) which are then compared with the directly determined local magnitude values. Except for events with stations where duration is anomalously reestimates(predicted ML) which are in an agreement within a 0.2 magnitude units with the corresponding ML values. Although this study could gain some insights into magnitudes of the past events, we still need to re-examine all the observables in order to obtain more reliable and precise information about magnitude and hypocenter location. So we will pursue a new local-magnitude scaling, as well as refinement of the duration magnitude equation, starting soon with re-reading the amplitudes-arrival time records of (and hence relocating) 250+earthquakes of 1979-present recorded at the KMA network. Thus, with more reliable and precise earthquake parameters determined we would better understand the recent seismicity and related tectonic process within and adjacent region to the Korean peninsula.peninsula.