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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:creator>Russell L. Wheeler</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2016</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Probabilistic seismic‐hazard assessment (PSHA) requires an estimate of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;span&gt;, the moment magnitude &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt; of the largest earthquake that could occur within a specified area. Sparse seismicity hinders &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;span&gt; estimation in the central and eastern United States (CEUS) and tectonically similar regions worldwide (stable continental regions [SCRs]). A new global catalog of moderate‐to‐large SCR earthquakes is analyzed with minimal assumptions about enigmatic geologic controls on SCR &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;span&gt;. An earlier observation that SCR earthquakes of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;7.0 and larger occur in young (250–23&amp;nbsp;Ma) passive continental margins and associated rifts but not in cratons is not strongly supported by the new catalog. SCR earthquakes of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;7.5 and larger are slightly more numerous and reach slightly higher &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt; in young passive margins and rifts than in cratons. However, overall histograms of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt; from young margins and rifts and from cratons are statistically indistinguishable. This conclusion is robust under uncertainties in&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;, the locations of SCR boundaries, and which of two available global SCR catalogs is used. The conclusion stems largely from recent findings that (1)&amp;nbsp;large southeast Asian earthquakes once thought to be SCR were in actively deforming crust and (2)&amp;nbsp;long escarpments in cratonic Australia were formed by prehistoric faulting. The 2014 seismic‐hazard model of the U.S. Geological Survey represents CEUS &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;span&gt; as four‐point probability distributions. The distributions have weighted averages of &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;7.0 in cratons and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;M&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;7.4 in passive margins and rifts. These weighted averages are consistent with &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;&lt;span&gt; estimates of other SCR PSHAs of the CEUS, southeastern Canada, Australia, and India.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1785/0120160048</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Seismological Society of America</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Maximum magnitude (&lt;i&gt;M&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;max&lt;/sub&gt;) in the central and eastern United States for the 2014 U.S. Geological Survey Hazard Model</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>