ABSTRACT
This study evaluated the b-value variation of earthquakes in Papua New Guinea region. The data used were extracted from International Seismological Centre (ISC), Pipers Lane, Thatcham, Berkshire, United Kingdom. The selected data consisted of earthquakes with Mb ≥ 2.6 for the study area from 1st January 1966 to 31st December 2015 (50 years) with focal depth from 0 – 700 km. The data were analyzed using Least Squares (LS) approximation method and SPSS Software version 20.0. The findings of this study categorized b-value into three groups: High, moderate and low. High b-value varies from 1.01 to 1.35, moderate b-value lies between 0.8 and 1.0 and low b-value varies from 0.63 to 0.80. This indicates that the years where high b-values occurred predominantly consist of many earthquakes of moderate magnitudes; slight decrease in b-value is associated with many earthquakes of large magnitudes and low b-value is associated with many earthquakes of small magnitudes. The b-value for the whole study area was calculated to be 0.91. The research hypothesis revealed that there is a significant difference in the b-value between the decade groups from 1966 to 2015. The F-ratio between the decade groups was found to be 3.776 with significant value of 0.010. The implication of this study is that temporal variation and monitoring of b-values will serve as one of the reliable ways of earthquake prediction in Papua New Guinea.
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