Constraints on the Size of the Smallest Triggering Earthquake from the ETAS Model, Baath's Law, and Observed Aftershock Sequences
arXiv:physics/0411114 · doi:10.1029/2004JB003535
Abstract
The physics of earthquake triggering together with simple assumptions of self-similarity impose the existence of a minimum magnitude m0 below which earthquakes do not trigger other earthquakes. Noting that the magnitude md of completeness of seismic catalogs has no reason to be the same as the magnitude m0 of the smallest triggering earthquake, we use quantitative fits and maximum likelihood inversions of observed aftershock sequences as well as Baath's law, compare with ETAS model predictions and thereby constrain the value of m0. We show that the branching ratio (average number of triggered earthquake per earthquake also equal to the fraction of aftershocks in seismic catalogs) is the key parameter controlling the minimum triggering magnitude m0. Conversely, physical upper bounds for m0 derived from state- and velocity-weakening friction indicate that at least 60 to 70 percent of all earthquakes are aftershocks.
latex AGU 7 pages + 4 figures
References in corpus (3)
Cited by in corpus (10)
- Theory of Earthquake Recurrence Times
- Apparent Clustering and Apparent Background Earthquakes Biased by Undetected Seismicity
- Magnitude-Dependent Omori Law: Empirical Study and Theory
- Objective Estimation of Spatially Variable Parameters of Epidemic Type Aftershock Sequence Model: Application to California
- Electro-Magnetic Earthquake Bursts and Critical Rupture of Peroxy Bond Networks in Rocks
- Embracing Data Incompleteness for Better Earthquake Forecasting
- Magnitude Of Earthquakes Controls The Size Distribution Of Their Triggered Events
- A Deep Gaussian Process Model for Seismicity Background Rates
- Predicting the Future Performance of the Planned Seismic Network in Mainland China
- Revisiting Seismicity Criticality: A New Framework for Bias Correction of Statistical Seismology Model Calibrations