Analysis verifies the exponential distribution of earthquake magnitudes in seismicity, suggesting new visualization methods.
Summary The magnitudes of earthquakes are generally described by an empirical relation called the Gutenberg-Richter law. This relation corresponds to a well-known statistical distribution, i.e. the exponential distribution. In this work, we verify the validity of the Gutenberg-Richter law using a 44-year-long worldwide seismic catalog of strong (Mw ≥ 6.5) events, by testing the exponentiality and the independence of the magnitudes. Moreover, we suggest a new way to visualize the distribution of the magnitudes, which complements the classical magnitude frequency distribution plot.
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Matteo Taroni (2025) studied this question.
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