Analysis of statistical features of the Parametric Earthquake Catalog for Algeria and Adjacent Regions (PECAAR): case of the maximum magnitude estimation in northern Algeria

It is well known that seismic hazard studies are very sensitive to the maximum possible magnitude estimate which is a critical key parameter used in the establishment of building codes. This study focuses on the analysis of space–time variations of seismic hazard parameters in northern Algeria with a special emphasis on maximum possible magnitude M max . Namely, seismic hazard parameters include the seismic activity rate λ , the Gutenberg–Richter b -value in addition to M max . The analysis is applied to Bellalem et al. (2022)’s Parametric Earthquake Catalog for Algeria and Adjacent Regions (PECAAR) which includes events with magnitudes M W ≥ 2.8 occurred during the time period 1658–2018. Background seismicity distribution is identified using Gardner and Knopoff (1974)’s windowing method, and then it is plotted together with the seismic hazard parameters distributions to study their space–time variability. The results show the overall statistical properties of the PECAAR newly compiled catalog. The last two decades are characterized by a mean seismicity rate concentrated along the coastal active faults band with the highest seismicity rate registered south of Algiers city and in the western region of Cheliff. Similarly, the highest M max estimates, which exceed 7.5, are observed in Blida south of Algiers city and the Cheliff region, thus pointing to a high hazard potential in these two densely populated cities. The obtained results describe northern Algeria's seismic hazard potential quite well, especially the maximum possible magnitude in each location.