The relation between magnitude and energy of earthquakes

Relations between magnitude and energy of earthquakes given earlier are briefly reviewed. A new relation is derived using energy computations based on complete integrations of the Rayleigh wave phase. Twenty‐seven shallow‐focus earthquakes in 1952–1953 covering the magnitude range 5.3–7.8 recorded by the Galitzin instruments at Kiruna have been used. The resulting formula is log E = (7.2 ± 0.5) + (2.0 ± 0.07) M + log (x/2), where the last correction term takes account of the ratio x of the total energy of the seismic waves and the energy of the Rayleigh waves.