J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158

DOI 10.1007/s10950-014-9455-y

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

New magnitude scales ML and spectrum-based Mw for the area

around Shanxi Rift System, North China
Bin Li & Jens Havskov & Lars Ottemöller &
Mathilde Bøttger Sørensen

Received: 23 March 2014 / Accepted: 8 August 2014 / Published online: 28 August 2014
# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract A new locally calibrated ML scale was de- Keywords Earthquake . Magnitude scale . Moment
rived for the area around the Shanxi rift system, North tensor inversion . Shanxi rift system . Shanxi Seismic
China, from 83 events recorded on 56 stations of the Network
Shanxi Seismic Network (SSN) resulting in 2,633 ob-
servations during the period of 2008–2012. It is
expressed as ML =log(A)+0.80log(R)+0.00187R−1.4,
1 Introduction
where A is the maximum amplitude of vertical compo-
nent in nanometer (nm) measured on a simulated
The Shanxi rift system (Fig. 1), also called the Shanxi
Wood–Anderson seismogram at a hypocentral distance
graben system, is one of the most pronounced Pliocene–
R. The new ML scale is valid for distances up to 600 km
Quaternary continental rift systems in China (Xu and
and is an improvement comparing to the currently used
Ma 1992). Its formation and development have been
SSN scale, with a reduction in variance of 39 % in
deeply affected by the interaction of the Indian, Eurasian
magnitude residuals. The moment magnitude Mw was
and Pacific plates (Xu et al. 1993). The Shanxi rift
also calculated for the whole data set based on spectral
system is bounded to the east and west by the Lvliang
analysis. To validate the Q-function used for spectral
and Taihang Mountains, respectively, which have an
Mw, we carried out moment tensor inversion for 17
average altitude of 1,400–2,000 m, and to the north
moderate size events and selected the regional attenua-
and south by the respective E–W-trending Yinshan–
tion model which gave spectral Mw on average closest to
Yanshan and Qinling Mountains. Within the rift, there
moment tensor Mw. The most appropriate Q-function
are series of en echelon left-stepping asymmetrical half-
was found to be Q(f)=299.4f0.563. The determination of
graben basins, extending for more than 1,200 km and
the Mw magnitudes makes it possible to derive a rela-
mainly related to the Datong, Xinding, Taiyuan, Linfen
tionship between the ML and Mw scales of this region,
and Yuncheng basins. These basins are separated by
which is expressed as Mw =0.85ML +0.58, similar to
highlands and form an S-shaped feature with a NNE-
relationships found elsewhere for similar tectonic
trending transtensional segment in the middle and NE–
environments.
ENE-trending extensional domains on both terminal
segments (Deng et al. 1973; Xu and Ma 1992; Xu
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (doi:10.1007/s10950-014-9455-y) contains supplementary
et al. 1993). These basins are filled with over 3,000 m
material, which is available to authorized users. of Cenozoic fluvial–lacustrine deposits and eolian loess,
gradually decreasing in elevation from 1,010 m in the
B. Li (*) : J. Havskov : L. Ottemöller : M. B. Sørensen
north to 380 m in the south (Li et al. 1998). The bound-
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen,
Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway aries between the basins and mountains are mainly
e-mail: Bin.Li@geo.uib.no defined and controlled by steeply dipping normal faults,
142 J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158

sometimes accompanied by a strike-slip component earthquakes with Ms ≥6.0 are related to these boundary
(Fig. 1) (Deng et al. 1973). These boundaries have been faults (Li 1989).
associated with strong earthquake activity and the oc- The Shanxi rift system is a seismically highly active
currence of all earthquakes with Ms ≥7.0, and 80 % of area. Since the first earthquake was documented in 231

Fig. 1 Topography map and active faults (black lines) of the Shanxi rift system and epicenter distribution of location results from this study
(blue circles) and SSNC (green circles). Red triangles stations of the SSN, black circles main cities
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
B.C. in Shanxi, at least seven large earthquakes with
magnitudes greater than Ms =7.0 have occurred in this
region. The Chinese historical earthquake catalogue is
likely to be complete for Ms ≥6.5 events since 1303
(Ming et al. 1995). Historical documents show that
before 1303, most documented historical earthquakes
in North China occurred in the Shanxi rift system. After
that, three Ms ≥7.5 earthquakes in the region were
documented again. In 1303, the Hongdong earth-
quake (Ms 8.0) within the Shanxi rift system killed
more than 200,000 people (Wu and Jia 1981).
Then, in 1556, the Huaxian earthquake (Ms 8.3)
occurred on the southern edge of the Shanxi rift
system, around 300 km from the epicenter of the
Hongdong earthquake. This earthquake killed
about 830,000 people, making it one of the dead-
liest earthquakes in human history (Liu and Wang
2012). In 1695, an Ms ∼7.8 earthquake occurred in
the Shanxi rift system again, close to the site of
the 1303 Hongdong earthquake (Wu and Jia 1981),
but on a different fault. Since then, no earthquake
with Ms >6.5 has occurred in this region, but
moderate to small earthquakes are still very fre-
quent. The latest earthquake causing casualties and
serious damage to buildings was the Datong–
Yanggao Ms 6.1 earthquake in 1989 (Miao et al.
1990).
Instrumental seismic monitoring with a local seismic
network in the Shanxi region commenced in 1970 (Wu
1982). Through gradual development during the past
few decades, the Shanxi Seismic Network (SSN) oper-
ated by the Shanxi Earthquake Administration has
grown into a network of 56 stations. All stations are
equipped with broadband seismometers and digital real-
time data transmission using the Internet. The monitor-
ing ability of the local network reaches down to
ML_SSN=1.5 (local magnitude derived by SSN) for
most areas within this region (Zhang et al. 2010).
Earthquakes are routinely located with the simplex al-
gorithm method (Prugger and Gendzwill 1988) or
HYPOINVERSE2000 (Klein 2003), both using the
Jeffreys–Bullen travel time model (Bullen 1963) for
local and regional distances.
The current practice of determining ML_SSN is de-
scribed by Dong et al. (2007) and Meng et al. (2008).
ML_SSN is calculated using a formula developed for
China (Yan and Xue 1987; Yan et al. 1994). It was
established in 1959, based on the definition of
Richter’s local magnitude (Richter 1935) and the
143
characteristics of the seismometers used in China at
the time. The general form of the formula is
M L ¼ log10 Aμ þ RðΔÞ þ X ð1Þ
where
 
1 AN AE
Aμ ¼ þ ð2Þ
2 V ðT ÞN V ðT ÞE
AN and AE are the respective maximum amplitudes in
microns of ground displacement as measured on the N–
S and E–W horizontal traces after simulating short-
period seismometer DD-1 recordings (Liu and Liu
1996), V(T)N and V(T)E are the amplification factors to
convert to ground displacement in microns at period T
corresponding to AN and AE, respectively, R(Δ) is the
distance correction function where Δ is the hypocentral
distance and X is station correction term. In practice, the
R(Δ) used currently is the general function for the local
magnitude scale used in China (Jia, personal communi-
cation 2013); the station corrections are not used (Dong
et al. 2007; Meng et al. 2008). No other magnitude is
currently calculated directly at the SSN (Jia, personal
communication 2013). Other magnitudes are computed
by converting from the ML_SSN magnitudes based on
general empirical formulae derived for a larger region,
i.e., China mainland (Yan and Xue 1987; Yang and
Zhang 1998; Wang and Yu 2009). Further uncertainties
are introduced by not having an ML scale calibrated for
the region as well as not using an appropriate local
crustal model for hypocenter location.
ML tends to be affected by saturation for larger events
(ML >6.0), while for events smaller than 3, recent stud-
ies have shown that ML systematically underestimates
the magnitude relative to M w due to attenuation
(Edwards et al. 2010; Allmann et al. 2011), although
theoretically, it is expected that Mw =ML (Deichmann
2006; Bethmann et al. 2011). In recent years, the mo-
ment magnitude Mw has become very popular for many
seismological applications, also on the light that it does
not saturate for large earthquakes (e.g., Kanamori 1983).
It is based on the seismic moment and is routinely
determined by moment tensor inversion for events larg-
er than 5.5 by international agencies using long-period
waveforms. For smaller events, the seismic moment can
be determined by moment tensor inversion (down to
magnitudes around 3) or by spectral analysis using a
regional attenuation model and regional data by local
144
agencies (currently not done for SSN). However, this
requires knowledge of the local attenuation.
The purpose of this study is to improve the
magnitude scales for the Shanxi region. This will
be done by determining a locally calibrated ML
scale (ML_New) following the standard definition
of ML except that the vertical channel is used
instead of horizontal channels (see later Sect. 2.1
for explanation), finding the regional attenuation
which gives the most accurate Mw based on spec-
tral analysis, carrying out moment tensor inversion
for the larger events, and analyzing the relation-
ship between Mw and ML_New using the whole
data set. Since the crustal model currently used is
not appropriate for the region, this study also
includes a relocation of the events using a regional
crustal structure from recent studies.
2 Methodology
2.1 Local magnitude scale (ML)
The local magnitude scale was defined by Richter
(1935) as
M L ¼ logðAÞ þ Qd ðΔÞ ð3Þ
where A is the maximum amplitude in millimeter
(mm) measured on a Wood–Anderson seismograph
at an epicentral distance Δ and Qd(Δ) is a dis-
tance correction function, as originally defined for
southern California. The scale is anchored such
that an amplitude of 1 mm on the Wood–
Anderson seismograph recorded at a distance of
100 km corresponds to an earthquake of ML =3.0.
The more general form of the local magnitude scale
(e.g., Bakun and Joyner 1984) is given by
M L ¼ logðAÞ þ a*logðRÞ þ b*ðRÞ þ c þ X ð4Þ
where A is the maximum ground displacement (nm)
measured on a Wood–Anderson filtered trace, a and b
are constants representing geometrical spreading and
attenuation, respectively, c is a constant for the scale to
give the same magnitude for the same amplitude at the
reference distance, R is the hypocentral distance (km),
and X is a station correction term. Most scales are still
anchored to give ML =3 at 100 km distance for the
equivalent of the 1-mm amplitude on the Wood–
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
Anderson seismograph, equivalent to 481-nm ground
displacement and Qd(100)=0.32. Regional variations in
attenuation must be accounted for deriving the local
magnitude scale, and this has been done for numerous
regions (e.g., Alsaker et al. 1991; Kim 1998; Keir et al.
2006; Saunders et al. 2012; Ottemöller and Sargeant
2013).
To develop the ML scale for a specific region,
the parameters of a, b, and c in Eq. (4) must be
calculated based on a sufficient number of obser-
vations in different distance ranges in the region.
The data can be inverted simultaneously for a
number of events by solving the following system
of equations,




log Aij ¼ M Li −a*log Rij −b* Rij −X j −c ð5Þ
where i and j are the index of earthquakes and
stations, respectively. MLi is the average magnitude
for event i. The sum of all station corrections is
required to be 0, and a, b, MLi, and Xj are esti-
mated by inverting this linear system using singu-
lar value decomposition (Menke 1989; Press et al.
1986).
According to the original M L definition by
Richter (1935), the horizontal components are used
to measure the maximum amplitudes. However, in
this study, we chose to use amplitude readings on
vertical components. The main consideration is
that seismic waves are generally influenced by
different local site conditions when propagating
from the focus to seismic recording stations, such
as amplification by local topographic forms and
changes in earth materials (e.g., sediments).
However, we will investigate the systematic differ-
ence between amplitudes on vertical and horizontal
components.
The original anchoring of the ML scale has been
used in most studies that developed region-specific
scales. However, another reference anchoring of
17 km, with an amplitude of 10 mm on the
Wood–Anderson corresponding to ML = 3.0, was
also proposed for regions with different attenuation
than Southern California (Hutton and Boore 1987).
This means that all scales would have the same
correction term at 17 km but might be different at
100 km. Sufficient observations are required within
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
the anchoring distance to justify deviating from the
original reference distance of 100 km. The epicen-
ter–station distance of most of our data falls into
the range of 0–400 km, but only 2–3 recordings
within 0–17 km (see Fig. 2). We, therefore, select-
ed the reference distance of 100 km.
Fig. 2 Magnitude and hypocenter distance distribution of obser-
vations. Magnitudes are computed using the scale developed in
this work
145
2.2 Moment magnitude scale (Mw)
The IASPEI (2013) equation for computing the moment
magnitude Mw (Kanamori 1977; Hanks and Kanamori
1979) reads as
M w ¼ 2=3ðlog10 M 0 −9:1Þ ð6Þ
where M0 is the seismic moment measured in newton
meters (Nm). The seismic moment can be determined
by moment tensor inversion for moderate to large events
or by spectral analysis for all events. In this study, M0 is
calculated based on source spectral analysis for all
events (3.0≤ ML_SSN ≤5.1) and by moment tensor
inversion for the relatively larger events (3.6≤
ML_SSN ≤5.1).
2.2.1 Spectral analysis
We assume the Brune source model (Brune 1970) S (f)
to be valid for the earthquakes studied here. The source
spectrum gets modified by geometrical spreading G(Δ,
h), attenuation D(f), and instrumental response. At an
epicentral distance Δ and hypocentral depth h, the ob-
served instrument corrected spectrum can be expressed
as
Að f Þ ¼ 0:6  2:0S ð f ÞDð f ÞGðΔ; hÞ ð7Þ
where the factors 0.6 and 2.0 account for average radi-
ation pattern effect and the effect of the free surface,
respectively, and f is the frequency.
The attenuation term D(f) consists of two parts,
−πfT
Dð f Þ ¼ e Q0 f α ⋅e−πfk ð8Þ
where the first part accounts for losses along the travel
path, T is the travel time, Q0 and α are constants and the
quality factor Q=Q0 fα (Q-function). The second part
accounts for near surface losses, the near surface atten-
uation given by κ.
The geometrical spreading depends on the hypocen-
tral distance. In this region, most of the earthquakes are
shallow, and the spectral analysis of our data is per-
formed based on S/Lg waves. Therefore, we use the
geometrical spreading function proposed by Herrmann
and Kijko (1983) for S/Lg waves where body wave
spreading is assumed for an epicentral distance less than
100 km and surface wave spreading for an epicentral
distance larger than 100 km.
146
Once the attenuation is known, the spectrum
corrected for attenuation can be obtained, which is used
to determine the corner frequency f0 and spectral flat
level Ω0. Then, the seismic moment M0 and consequent-
ly the Mw are calculated.
We first determined the spectral Mw for some events
manually and compared them to the results based on the
automatic routine in SEISAN (Ottemöller and Havskov
2003). The difference was not significant, and the data
processing of spectral analysis and determination of
spectral Mw were carried out by using the automatic
routine of SEISAN. The work procedure of this auto-
matic routine is described in the next data-processing
section.
2.2.2 Moment tensor inversion
The moment tensor inversion in this study was per-
formed using the time-domain moment tensor inversion
method (TDMI_INV code), which has been integrated
into SEISAN (Ottemöller et al. 2013). This method is
described in detail in Dreger (2002) and briefly outlined
in the following.
By considering both a spatial and temporal point
source, the seismic source can be simplified to be
U n ðx; t Þ ¼ M ij *Gni; j ðx; z; t Þ ð9Þ
th
where Un is the observed n component of displacement
or velocity at a location x and time t due to a point
source, Gni,j is the nth component Green’s function for
specific force-couple orientations, and Mij is the seismic
moment tensor, which describes the strength of the
force-couples. The indices i and j refer to geographical
directions. The Mij can be resolved by inverting ob-
served seismograms using the linear least squares meth-
od for a given source depth. The Mij is then decomposed
into the scalar seismic moment, a double-couple mo-
ment tensor (DC) and a compensated linear vector di-
pole moment tensor (CLVD). The double couple can be
described by the strike, rake, and dip of the correspond-
ing two nodal planes. The isotropic component is
constrained to be zero. The best combination of focal
depth and moment tensor is found by a grid search for
minimum misfit and minimum CLVD component at
different depths.
Here, we aim to use the Mw magnitudes from mo-
ment tensor inversion of seismic waves as reference
events to further evaluate our Mw magnitudes based on
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
spectral analysis. The data processing is described in the
next section, and an example of the moment tensor
inversion is given in the result part, see Fig. 10.
3 Data and data processing
Waveform data used in this study were taken from the
recordings by the SSN. The data are from 2008–2012,
for which time period there is a good coverage of digital
broad band stations (Zhang et al. 2010). For determining
the ML_New scale, we set the maximum distance of
recordings for each earthquake to 600 km. In order to
get sufficient observations with good quality (clear sig-
nal and high signal to noise ratio) for each earthquake,
we selected all events with ML_SSN ≥3.0 based on the
preliminary catalogue from the Shanxi Seismic Network
Center (SSNC). Using these criteria, a total of 2,633
observations from 83 events recorded on 56 stations
were used (see Table 1 in the Electronic supplements
(ES) for catalogue parameters of the 83 selected events).
The geographic distribution of selected events and sta-
tions is plotted in Fig. 1. The magnitude and hypocenter
distance distribution of observations are shown in Fig. 2,
showing that most observations fall into the distance
range of 0–400 km.
Hypocenter locations were computed for this study
by reprocessing the data in SEISAN. The first onset of
seismic waves on the vertical trace was read as the P
phase manually if clearly determined and then S phases
on horizontal traces if possible. The maximum ampli-
tudes for ML_New were read on the vertical component
of Wood–Anderson simulated traces. The Wadati dia-
gram (Wadati 1933) was made for each event to make an
independent check of the observed arrival times and the
fitting of all data points. For a further check of the
quality of our readings, the travel time plot of P and S
waves as a function of distance was also made for each
event to identify potential bad picks. This was important
to have reliable hypocenters as the hypocentral distance
is used in the ML_New scale inversion.
For local earthquakes, the nearest stations usually
provide the most accurate information due to the clarity
of the phases and less influence of uncertainty in the
local model on the results, especially for the estimation
of event depth. It is, therefore, desirable to put more
weight on data from near stations than on those from
distant stations provided that enough stations are avail-
able for a reliable location. In this study, observations
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158 147

Table 1 Parameters of crustal structure in this study selected, the flat level Ω0 and corner frequency were
Layer no. Layer name Depth (km) P-wave velocity (km/s) obtained by fitting the theoretical spectrum by grid
search (Ottemöller and Havskov 2003).
1 Sediments 4 4.8 For moment tensor inversion, the velocity
2 Upper crust I 7 6.0 seismograms were used in this study. The data prepara-
3 22 6.2 tion firstly includes removal of the instrument response
4 Upper crust II 25 6.3 from the data and selection of traces with good signals.
5 32 6.4 To limit the bandwidth within which range the useful
6 Lower crust 40 7.2 signal is present, a band-pass filter, with the bandwidth
7 Upper mantle 80 8.0 of 0.02–0.1 Hz for ML_SSN ≤4.0 and 0.02–0.06 Hz for
4.0< ML_SSN ≤5.1, was applied on both the observed
and synthetic data.
within 150 km from the epicenter were given full
weight, whereas observations at or farther than 200 km
were set to zero. Within this range, at least five stations 4 Crustal model
were used for location.
The S/Lg waves of our selected data are clear and not The currently used crustal model for hypocenter loca-
saturated, which were selected for the spectral analysis tion in the SSN is the Jeffreys–Bullen model (Bullen
in this study. The time domain signal of S/Lg waves was 1963) for local and regional distances (Jia, personal
firstly extracted from the vertical-component observa- communication, 2013) as shown in Fig. 3. As it is a
tions, with a time window for data extraction of 20 s global model, it is not necessarily appropriate for this
starting 2 s before the S-wave arrival time. The time region. In fact, the regional crustal structure of the area
domain data was then transformed into the frequency around Shanxi rift system has been studied intensively
domain using a standard FFT routine. Together with the in recent years, mainly using receiver function analysis,
computation of the spectrum corrected for attenuation, seismic imaging, and tomography (Chen, et al. 2009;
the noise spectrum prior to the first phase arrival was Huang et al. 2009, 2011; Tang et al. 2010; Li et al.
also computed, used to determine the frequency range 2010a, b; Bao et al. 2011; Yu et al. 2012; Lu et al.
over which the observed spectral levels are significantly 2011). These studies have improved the understanding
higher than the noise. Based on the frequency range of the details of the regional crustal structure, e.g., slight

Fig. 3 Left 1D velocity model of the Shanxi rift system used in this study, modified from Tang et al. (2010) and Yu et al. (2012) and the JB
model currently used by SSN; right travel time curves of the two models
148 J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158

Fig. 4 Q-functions of the Shanxi

rift system from recent studies of
Chuo et al. (2004), Song et al.
(2007), Dong et al. (2011), Liang
et al. (2012), and the nos.3–5 of
grid search in Table 2

variations of Moho depth in different areas, and their
main conclusions about the structure are very similar.
Our 1D P-wave velocity model (Table 1 and Fig. 3) is a
simplified version of the models from Tang et al. (2010)
and Yu et al. (2012). These two regional studies use the
largest amount of data and have been well tested. In our
1D model, the depth of the Moho discontinuity is 40 km,
which is consistent with most relevant studies in this
region (e.g., Li et al. 2010b; Huang et al. 2011). The P-
wave velocity for each layer is the mean velocity value
of the corresponding layer in the model from Tang et al.
(2010), which gives a velocity range for each layer.
Additionally, the Vp/Vs ratio used in this model is
1.77, which is the mean value of Vp/Vs ratios under
18 seismic stations in Shanxi obtained using receiver
function analysis by Li et al. (2010a).

Fig. 5 Comparison of (−log A0)

term between the new scale, some
of previous studies, and SSN
current calibration data, assuming
that amplitudes are ground
displacements in nanometers
(nm)
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158 149

Fig. 6 Comparison between

magnitudes from the new scale
and SSN report

Fig. 7 Comparison between Log

A(Vertical) and Log A(Horizontal) for
all recordings used in this study;
the Log A(Horizontal) is the
arithmetic mean value of the two
horizontal components, the same
as the SSN currently used
150 J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158

5 Q-function
The first study on estimating the Q-values of Shanxi was
done by Peng (1989), based on the Aki coda model
(Herrmann 1980) and using near-earthquake coda
waves. The results presented average Q-values of dif-
ferent areas in the Shanxi Province. Most Q-values are
in the range of 100–300, and no frequency dependence
was given. Chuo and Zhao (1992) studied the Q-values
of the mid-northern part of the Shanxi rift area using the
direct P-waves of small earthquakes. Eleven Q-values
were determined for different areas, varying from 87
near Datong to 214 closed to Fansi area (Fig. 1).
However, all these values are independent of frequency
and therefore were not used in this study, since all recent
studies give Q to be frequency dependent in this region
(Chuo et al. 2004; Song et al. 2007; Dong et al. 2011;
Liang et al. 2012).

Fig. 8 Comparison of individual magnitude residuals for the whole data set for the current SSN scale without station correlations (in
practice) (top) and our new scale without station correlations (middle) and with station corrections (bottom)
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158 151

Fig. 9 Residual distribution of

128 combinations of parameters
Q0, α, and κ by grid search.
Residual: average difference in
log observed, calculated
displacement spectrum (nm/Hz)

In 2004, Chuo et al. studied the attenuation of the SEISAN Hypocenter program (Lienert and Havskov
Shanxi region again, based on the analysis of S-waves 1995). The epicenter distribution of our locations and
from 156 ML_SSN ≥1.5 earthquakes using the method the locations from the SSNC is plotted together in
proposed by Atkinson and Mereu (1992), and a frequency- Fig. 1; the more detailed information is given in
dependent attenuation model was estimated as Q(f)= Table 1 (in ES). We first compared the results for each
323.3f0.506. The key point of this method is that it applies event and then calculated the mean values of changes in
repeat iterative inversions to search the best solutions for epicenters and depths for all events. The results show
the site effects and inelastic attenuation coefficient, which that the changes in locations are very small (on average
is then used to derive the attenuation model. Later, Song ∼2 km) and do not seem systematic except for depth,
et al. (2007) analyzed the S-waves of 58 ML_SSN ≥3.0 which increases around 3 km on average compared to
earthquakes and used a genetic algorithm (Moya et al. the previous results. Most events in our data set have a
2000) to invert the low-frequency spectral level, corner good azimuth distribution, so the depth changes are
frequency of earthquakes, and site responses of stations in mainly caused by using only the nearest stations in our
Shanxi. The attenuation model was then derived based the study (within 150 km). In addition, our local crustal
estimated site effects and source parameters, which is Q(f) model has slightly higher velocities on average than
=299.4f0.563. More recently, Dong et al. (2011) and Liang the SSN currently used JB crustal model (Fig. 3).
et al. (2012) determined the Q-function again, both based
on the analysis of S-waves and using the method of
Atkinson and Mereu (1992) and obtained the relationships Table 2 Top 5 results of grid search for attenuation
as Q(f)=469.5f0.3141 and Q(f)=420.7f0.369, respectively.
No. Q0 α κ Ns f0 Mw Res
These results from different studies since 2004 are plotted
in Fig. 4. We will evaluate the four models in the 1 150.0 0.700 0.040 2604 13.78 3.39 0.129
following. 2 150.0 0.700 0.030 2668 11.02 3.36 0.130
3 450.0 0.400 0.040 2583 11.78 3.17 0.130
4 250.0 0.600 0.040 2623 12.52 3.24 0.131
6 Results and discussion 5 350.0 0.500 0.040 2605 12.04 3.19 0.131

6.1 Relocation
The relocation was done for the selected data set apply-
ing our local 1D velocity model (Fig. 3) and using the
No. grid search number (ordered with residuals); Q0 and α are
constants in the frequency-dependent attenuation function (Eq. 8);
κ near surface attenuation, Ns number of spectra used; Mw, f0, and
Res average Mw, corner frequency, and residuals of 83 events used
in grid search, respectively
152
6.2 The ML_New scale
The ML_New scale obtained from the inversion of all
recordings in the data set (10–600 km) is
M L New ¼ logðAÞ þ 0:80logðRÞ
þ 0:00187R−1:47; ð10Þ
with a standard deviation of 0.13 for individual magni-
tudes of all selected events for the new scale. The
amplitude is measured in nanometers (nm). The com-
bined correction term as a function of distance for the
new scale is plotted in Fig. 5, together with the correc-
tion terms from different studies/areas (Hutton and
Boore 1987; Bakun and Joyner 1984; Alsaker et al.
1991). Anchoring the scale at the reference distance of
100 km, the correction term for the new scale is larger
than for Southern California (Hutton and Boore 1987),
Central California (Bakun and Joyner 1984), and
Norway (Alsaker et al. 1991) for distances less than
Fig. 10 An example showing the result of moment tensor inversion for 20100605 event with Mw =4.6
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
100 km. For distances greater than 100 km, the correc-
tion term for the new scale falls into the middle of these
scales. The distance correction data (Eq. 1) currently
used by SSN (Jia, personal communication, 2013) is
also plotted in Fig. 5. It is seen that the SSN scale is
not anchored at 100 km where it shows about 0.1
magnitude units larger than the new scale. For a hypo-
central distance smaller than 50 km or larger than
420 km, the SSN distance correction data will give
smaller magnitudes compared to the new scale. While
for distances between 50 and 400 km, where more than
80 % recordings fall into this range (Fig. 2), the magni-
tudes based on the SSN distance correction data will be
larger than those from the new scale.
Figure 6 shows a comparison between magnitudes
from the ML_New and ML_SSN scales. Magnitudes
from the new scale are slightly smaller than the ones
reported by SSN, with an average of 0.24 magnitude
units less for the whole data set. This difference can
have several explanations. First, we read and used
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158 153

the maximum amplitudes on vertical components
after simulating on a Wood–Anderson seismogram,
while the SSN scale used the arithmetic mean value
of the amplitudes of two horizontal components after
simulating the DD-1 short-period displacement
seismograms. To give an indication of the magnitude
difference due to different amplitudes used, the
log(A)-vertical and the mean of the log(A)-horizontal
terms (Eq. 4) were computed, and their relationship
is shown in Fig. 7. It is shown that the log(A)-
horizontal is larger than the log (A)-vertical, and
the mean difference between log(A)-vertical and
log(A)-horizontal is around 0.1. This means that 0.1
magnitude units should be added to the new scale to
compare to the old scale. As mentioned above, the
new scale is calibrated for the region, while the SSN
scale used the general distance correction data
(Fig. 5; Eq. 1) for the whole China (Yan and Xue
1987; Yan et al. 1994; Li et al. 2004; Liu et al.
2007; Meng et al. 2008). This should be the second
reason for the difference. The last reason comes
from the station correction which plays an important
role in magnitude determination. As mentioned in
the introduction part, the SSN scale does not include
the station correction while the new scale takes it
into account. The station corrections of individual
stations are shown in Table 2 (in ES). The absolute
station corrections found in this study are all less
than 0.5.
To evaluate the new scale, we computed the
magnitude residuals for all observations in the data
set for the new scale with station corrections and
without station, as well as the residuals for the
SSN currently used scale without station correc-
tions. The results are shown in Fig. 8. The station
correction improves the magnitude results, and

Table 3 Magnitude comparison for relatively large events in the data set

Date Time Lat. Log. Depth ML Mw

(yyyy/mm/dd) (GMT) (°N) (°E) (km)
SSN New Spectrala Spectralb Spectralc Spectrald MTI* Quality

2009/03/28 1111 38.904 112.934 10.0 4.5 4.3 4.1 4.1 4.0 4.0 4.2 3
2009/12/20 1421 35.219 113.475 6.2 4.0 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.8 3.8 3.8 3
2010/02/08 1342 39.075 111.703 18.8 3.8 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 2
2010/04/04 1346 39.990 113.852 10.1 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.4 3
2010/04/07 0730 36.299 111.711 5.0 4.1 3.9 3.6 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.7 3
2010/06/05 1258 38.199 112.640 7.1 5.1 4.9 4.5 4.6 4.5 4.5 4.6 4
2010/06/10 1308 37.818 111.481 14.4 3.6 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.2 3
2010/12/14 0345 35.307 111.108 16.6 3.8 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 2
2011/01/15 0402 35.517 110.736 15.9 4.1 3.9 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.6 3.6 2
2011/03/06 1751 39.020 111.717 6.0 4.5 4.2 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 4
2011/04/20 1615 36..030 112.976 12.0 3.7 3.4 3.3 3.4 3.3 3.3 3.2 2
2011/04/26 0315 39.382 113.052 19.0 3.7 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.4 3
2011/08/02 1157 36.504 112.039 19.0 4.2 3.9 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.7 3
2011/12/24 0620 39.503 112.790 6.0 3.9 3.6 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.6 3
2012/09/17 0243 37.589 112.357 14.1 3.8 3.6 3.4 3.5 3.4 3.4 3.6 2
2012/11/01 1609 35.951 111.734 5.0 3.8 3.5 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.3 3.5 2
2012/11/29 0047 39.917 113.190 9.1 3.6 3.3 3.4 3.4 3.3 3.3 3.4 2
Mean 4.05 3.78 3.65 3.67 3.62 3.62 3.70

MTI moment tensor inversion; Quality four different levels of MTI results in total, the best is 4 and the poorest is 1 (Havskov and Ottemöller
2010)
a
Spectrum Mw based on the Q(f)=323.3f0.506 (Chuo et al. 2004)
b
Spectrum Mw based on the Q(f)=299.34f0.563 (Song et al. 2007)
c
Spectrum Mw based on the Q(f)=469.5f0.3141 (Dong et al. 2011)
d
Spectrum Mw based on the Q(f)=420.7f0.369 (Liang et al. 2012)
154
compared to the SSN current scale, the new scale
performs much better, with a reduction in variance
of 39 %.
Based on these results, we consider that the ML_New
scale will give more accurate results compared to the old
scale for ML_SSN determination in this region.
6.3 The Mw magnitude
As discussed in the method part, the Q-function plays a
significant role for determining Mw magnitude based on
spectral analysis, as the observed recordings can be
seriously modified by regional attenuation. For this
region, as shown in Fig. 4, there are four existing Q-
functions from different studies in recent years. To esti-
mate and select the best one for this study, a grid search
and a moment tensor inversion of 17 relatively large
events (3.6≤ ML_SSN ≤5.1) were performed.
The grid search here is based on the assumption that
the Brune spectrum (Brune 1970) is exactly correct and
searches for the parameters of Q0, α, and κ that give the
Fig. 11 Examples of typical source spectra from two events. The top
two ANZ (Δ=51 km) and HZH (Δ=38 km) for the Mw 3.7 event of 7
April 2010, the bottom two SZZ (Δ=229 km) and TIY (Δ=41 km)
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
best fit to the Brune spectrum. For each combination of
Q0, α, and κ, the corner frequency f0 and spectral flat
level Ω0 are determined, and the misfit to the spectrum
and the mean misfit for all the event–station combina-
tions are then calculated. It is assumed that the combi-
nation with the lowest mean misfit gives the most cor-
rect attenuation function. Therefore, a grid search can
give us a good indication of the possible range of Q. Our
input data cover the variation range of parameters in the
four existing Q-functions, including the Q0 starting from
the value of 100, with a step length of 50 and 8 steps in
total; α with a start point of 0.4, a step length of 0.1 and
4 steps; and κ with a start point of 0.02, a step length of
0.01 and 4 steps. Totally, 128 combinations of Q0, α,
and κ with different residuals were obtained. The distri-
bution of residuals for all grid searches is plotted in
Fig. 9. The residuals vary in the range 0.1–0.8, while
most have a residual less than 0.3. The top 5 combina-
tions, with lowest residuals, are shown in Table 2. We
compared the four existing Q-functions with the top 5
results of the grid search and found that the four Q-
for the Mw 4.6 event of 5 June 2010, the blue lines the observed source
spectra, the black solid lines the theoretical spectra based on the results
of modeling, the dashed lines the noise spectra
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
functions are comparable to the results of nos. 3–5 in
Table 2. The Q-functions from Song et al. (2007) and
Chuo et al. (2004) are close to the result of no.4 and
no.5, respectively, and the Q-functions from Liang et al.
(2012) and Dong et al. (2011) seem close to the result of
no.3 (Fig. 4). However, the Q-function from Liang et al.
(2012) has both smaller Q0 and α compared to the
parameters of result no.3, which will result in higher
attenuation. While for the Q-function from Dong et al.
(2011), the slightly larger Q0 cannot compensate the
much smaller index parameter α comparing to the result
of no.3 in Table 2. However, the residuals from the top 5
combinations of these parameters are similarly small,
but different parameters for determining Mw from the
spectrum may result in different Mw.
For a further test of which Q gives the best solution of
spectral-based Mw, the moment tensor inversion of 17
relatively large events with good quality of data, which
is believed to give the most reliable Mw magnitude, was
then performed. A representative example of this work
for event 20100605 is shown in Fig. 10. The results,
together with the spectrum Mw magnitudes using the
four different Q-functions, are shown in Table 3. All the
four Q-functions give similar Mw, and all are close to the
Mw from moment tensor inversion (Table 3). So, it is
Fig. 12 Comparison and
relationship of new ML scale and
spectrum-based Mw from 83
earthquakes. The solid line is the
fitting line of all data points, and
the dashed line indicates the 1:1
relationship
155
hard to tell immediately which one is better. We there-
fore compared the mean spectrum Mw magnitudes of
these events with the mean value of Mw from moment
tensor inversion and found that the spectrum Mw based
on the Q-function from Song et al. (2007) is slightly
closer to the moment tensor inversion Mw, which is also
close to the no.4 Q-combination within the top 5 in the
grid search result (Fig. 4). Therefore, we selected this Q
for this study.
The spectrum-based Mw magnitudes of 83 events
were obtained from this study. Examples of typical
source spectra from two events are shown in Fig. 11.
6.4 ML_New–Mw relationship
The derivation of the ML_New and Mw scales allows us
to develop the ML_New–Mw relationship for this region.
All the 83 events were used for this revision, and the
relationship obtained by applying the orthogonal regres-
sion (Ericson 1971) is
M w ¼ 0:85M L New þ 0:58 ð11Þ
The data points used and the regression results are
shown in Fig. 12. Our selected events fall into the local
156
magnitude range of 2.4≤ ML_New ≤4.9 and 2.6≤ Mw
≤4.6 for moment magnitudes. As shown in Fig. 12,
ML_New is close to the Mw for the data in the range of
ML_New 3–4. For the ML_New ≤3.0 data, ML magni-
tudes seem to be underestimated compared to the Mw
magnitudes, while for ML_New ≥4.0 data, ML_New
scale gives relatively larger magnitudes. This result
might indicate that this region has relatively higher
attenuation for small events (ML_New ≤3.0), which
are dominated by higher frequencies and attenuate fast
along the path, and the opposite for events larger than
ML_New=4.0. The mean stress drop of each event was
also investigated, but it varies significantly for similar
magnitudes, and its relationship with magnitudes is not
clear.
For the whole data set, we obtained the scaling factor
between the two scales of 0.85, smaller than the theo-
retical ratio (Deichmann 2006; Bethmann et al. 2011).
However, previous studies show that the scaling factor
varies in a large range between different regions
(Deichmann 2006; Grünthal et al. 2009; Bethmann
et al. 2011; Ottemöller and Sargeant 2013).
7 Conclusion
Our study developed a new ML scale for the area around
the Shanxi rift system. The new ML scale is valid for
distances up to 600 km and is an improvement compar-
ing to the current SSN scale, with a reduction in variance
of 39 % in magnitude residuals. It is adjusted to the
region, takes the station corrections into account, and
obtained using a simulated displacement Wood–
Anderson seismogram instead of using velocity
seismograms as currently used in the practice with
SSN for ML. Despite this difference, the two scales are
very similar with only a shift in magnitude of 0.2.
Considering the Mw determined by moment tensor in-
version correct, we have selected from a number of
published results an adequate attenuation function to
be used for determining Mw for all earthquakes. There
is a small but systematic difference between ML_New
and Mw, as similarly observed in other regions.
With this work, we now consider that the SSN has
well-calibrated ML and Mw magnitude scales for future
work.
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the seismic network
center at the Earthquake Administration of Shanxi province for
J Seismol (2015) 19:141–158
their providing the whole data set used in this study, which makes
this study possible. We also express our appreciation to the deputy
director, senior engineer Jianxi Jia, for his detailed explanation of
current practice in the seismic network and providing the SSN
currently used JB table and ML_SSN calibration table. We are
grateful to the editor Thomas Braun and two anonymous reviewers
for their constructive comments and suggestions, which signifi-
cantly improved the manuscript.
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