Comment on 'Changes of reporting rates in the southern california earthquake catalog, introduced by a new definition of M_L' by thessa tormann, stefan wiemer, and egill hauksson

摘要

Earthquake catalogs can be inhomogeneous because of changes in the definition of earthquake magnitude. Provided that a sufficient number of events have magnitudes defined in more than one system, it is possible to apply a Monte Carlo method to the observed joint distribution to convert sets of magnitudes from one system to another, improving any statistical analysis of the catalog. I demonstrate the method for the southern California catalog, in which the definition of local magnitude has recently been changed. Monte Carlo magnitude mapping appears to eliminate temporal changes that are otherwise present.