Spatiotemporal correlations of aftershock sequences

Abstract

Aftershock sequences are of particular interest in seismic research since they may condition seismic activity in a given region over long time spans. While they are typically identified with periods of enhanced seismic activity after a large earthquake as characterized by the Omori law, our knowledge of the spatiotemporal correlations between events in an aftershock sequence is limited. Here, we study the spatiotemporal correlations of two aftershock sequences form California (Parkfield and Hector Mine) using the recently introduced concept of "recurrent" events. We find that both sequences have very similar properties and that most of them are captured by the space-time epidemic-type aftershock sequence (ETAS) model if one takes into account catalog incompleteness. However, the stochastic model does not capture the spatiotemporal correlations leading to the observed structure of seismicity on small spatial scales.

31 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Apparent Clustering and Apparent Background Earthquakes Biased by Undetected Seismicity
• Universal Earthquake-Occurrence Jumps, Correlations with Time, and Anomalous Diffusion
• Constraints on the Size of the Smallest Triggering Earthquake from the ETAS Model, Baath's Law, and Observed Aftershock Sequences
• Network of recurrent events for the Olami-Feder-Christensen model

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Record-Breaking Avalanches in Driven Threshold Systems
• Extreme value and record statistics in heavy-tailed processes with long-range memory