Abstract:
The Aki (1965) maximum likelihood estimate of the Gutenberg–Richter
b-value is extended for use in the case of multiple catalogs with different levels of
completeness. The most striking feature of this newly derived estimator is its
simplicity—it is more manageable than the well-known and already easy to use
Weichert (1980) solution to the analogs problem. In addition, confidence intervals
for the newly derived estimator are provided.