The (Un)Productivity of the 2014 M6.0 South Napa Aftershock Sequence

The M6.0 South Napa mainshock produced fewer aftershocks than expected for a California earthquake of its magnitude, which became apparent a few days into the sequence. In the first 4.5 days, only 59 M≥1.8 aftershocks had occurred, the largest of which was a M3.9 that happened a little over two days after the mainshock. In contrast, during the same time period the 2004 M6.0 Parkfield earthquake had over 220 M≥1.8 aftershocks, 6 of which were M≥4. Here I investigate the aftershock productivity and other sequence statistics of the South Napa sequence and compare it with other M~6 California mainshock-aftershock sequences. By focusing on similar size events, they have similar finite extents within the seismotectonic environment. While the productivities of these sequences vary quite a bit, the b-values of the magnitude-frequency distributions all fall in the 0.6-0.8 range for the northern California sequences, slightly lower than the b-value of ~1 typical of southern California seismicity. Despite the relatively low productivity of the South Napa sequence, I show that the Epidemic-Type Aftershock Sequence (ETAS) model (Ogata, JASA, 1988) describes the sequence well and investigate whether the ETAS model parameters suggest that low-productivity sequences are typical for the region. I also explore how quickly after a mainshock these types of models can capture the low productivity of the sequence. The productivity of a sequence is a critical parameter in determining the aftershock probabilities reported in the days following the mainshock. Therefore, the sooner an accurate representation of the aftershock productivity can be obtained, the sooner more accurate aftershock probability reports can be produced.