Research Collection Journal Article Re-visiting large historical earthquakes in the Colombian Eastern Cordillera Author(s): Dimaté, Cristina; Rivera, Luis; Cisternas, Armando Publication Date: 2005-01 Permanent Link: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000033443 Originally published in: Journal of Seismology 9(1), http://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-005-1413-2 Rights / License: In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted This page was generated automatically upon download from the ETH Zurich Research Collection. For more information please consult the Terms of use. ETH Library Journal of Seismology (2005) 9: 1–22 C Springer 2005 Re-visiting large historical earthquakes in the Colombian Eastern Cordillera Cristina Dimat´e1,2,3, Luis Rivera2 & Armando Cisternas2 1Ingeominas, Diag. 53 No 34-53, Bogota,´ Colombia; 2Institut de Physique du Globe, Universite´ Louis Pasteur, 5 rue Rene´ Descartes, F67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France; 3ETH, Institute of Geophysics, ETH, Hoenggerberg, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland, e-mail:
[email protected] Received 6 November 2002; accepted in revised form 14 May 2004 Key words: Colombian Eastern Cordillera, historic seismicity, macroseismic source parameters Abstract A re-assessment of the historic seismicity of the central sector of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera (EC) is made by revision of bibliographic sources, by calibration with modern instrumental earthquakes, and by interpretations in terms of current knowledge of the tectonics and seismicity of the region. Throughout the process we have derived an equation to estimate Mw for shallow crustal earthquakes in Colombia using the length of isoseismal VIII, LVIII: [Mw] = 1.85 log LVIII + 2.7 We also derived an equation to evaluate Mw for Colombian crustal earthquakes using the rupture length, L, estimated generally from the aftershock distribution of strong earthquakes: [Mw] = 1.77 log L + 3.9 We calculated average attenuation parameters for intermediate depth and shallow earthquakes that may be used, combined with other observations, to estimate the focal depth of historical events.