Patterns of Seismicity Characterizing the Earthquake Cycle

Abstract:

A number of methods to calculate probabilities of major earthquakes have recently been proposed. Most of these methods depend upon understanding patterns of small earthquakes preceding the large events. For example, the Natural Time Weibull method for earthquake forecasting (see www.openhazards.com) is based on the assumption that large earthquakes complete the Gutenberg-Richter scaling relation defined by the smallest earthquakes. Here we examine the scaling patterns of small earthquakes having magnitudes between cycles of large earthquakes. For example, in the region of California-Nevada between longitudes -130 to -114 degrees W, and latitudes 32 to 45 degrees North, we find 79 earthquakes having magnitudes M6 during the time interval 1933 – present, culminating with the most recent event, the M6.0 Napa, California earthquake of August 24, 2014. Thus we have 78 complete cycles of large earthquakes in this region. After compiling and stacking the smaller events occurring between the large events, we find a characteristic pattern of scaling for the smaller events. This pattern shows a scaling relation for the smallest earthquakes up to about 3<M4.5, and a deficit of intermediate magnitude earthquakes for 4.5<M<6. b-value for the small magnitude scaling line are 0.85 for the entire interval 1933- present. Extrapolation of the small-magnitude scaling line indicates that the average cycle tends to be completed by a large earthquake having M~6.4. In addition, statistics indicate that departure of the successive earthquake cycles from their average pattern can be characterized by Coefficients of Variability and other measures. We discuss these ideas and apply them not only to California, but also to other seismically active areas in the world