This research has been carried under the Geological Survey Ireland 2017 Short Call. This call provided funding for researchers in academia or industry on the island of Ireland for projects of less than 12 months duration and less than €25,000. 

Please note that the final report has been redacted to remove staff, financial and sensitive information. Some file sizes have been reduced to allow easier uploading/downloading, higher quality files are available on request. Supplemental information is also available on request in most cases. Please contact research[AT]gsi.ie

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and not of Geological Survey Ireland or the Department of Climate Action, Communications and Environment.

Lead Applicant: Prof Chris Bean

Host: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Project Title: Determining a new earthquake local magnitude scale for Ireland

Project Description: In this project, we will investigate the seismic wave attenuation characteristics of the Irish
crust and determine a new local magnitude scale for Ireland. We will utilize the large number of available waveforms recorded at both permanent and temporary seismic networks in the past ten years to measure maximum Sg/Lg amplitudes and associated instantaneous frequencies at all recording stations for the more than 200 new seismic
events we recently detected from template waveform cross-correlation. A new software will be developed to simultaneously invert for amplitude decay parameters, station corrections and magnitudes. The inverse problem will be solved by means of a Bayesian, transdimensional inversion scheme that will allow distance dependent attenuation to be considered and accounted for. The new code will be made available to the seismological community, and the new local magnitude scale parameters will be used for routine magnitude determination at the Irish National Seismic Network (INSN). Attenuation characteristics obtained for Ireland will be compared to those previously determined for Great Britain, and the outcome of this work is also expected to help design future induced seismicity monitoring procedures in Ireland.

Report