Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; February 2006; v. 96; no. 1;
p. 11-32; DOI: 10.1785/0120040166
© Seismological Society of America
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Figure 3. Average rate of earthquakes in four magnitude ranges, as a function of
catalog duration, where a y-year average is based on the most recent
y years of the catalog ending 31 December 1999. Magnitude ranges are:
(a) 4.8 
M 5.4; (b) 5.5 M 5.9; (c) 6.0
M 6.9; (d) M 
7.0. The duration of catalog
completeness is estimated from the point at which the rate of earthquakes falls
off (shown by arrows). Horizontal dotted lines indicate the upper and lower
range of the earthquake rates. Completeness durations determined from these
figures are applied to smaller magnitude intervals to generate the occurrence
rates shown in Figure 4.
