Distribution of Seismicity Before the Larger Earthquakes in Italy in the Time Interval 1994–2004

The Region–Time–Length (RTL) algorithm has been applied to different instrumental catalogues to detect seismic quiescence before medium-to-large earthquakes in Italy in the last two decades. RTL performances are sensitive to the choice of spatial and temporal parameters. The method for automatic par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPure and applied geophysics Vol. 167; no. 8-9; pp. 933 - 958
Main Author Gentili, S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel 01.08.2010
Springer Nature B.V
Springer Verlag
Subjects
Catalogues
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earthquakes
Environmental Sciences
Geophysics
Geophysics/Geodesy
Global Changes
Intervals
Low level
Physics
Sciences of the Universe
Seismic activity
Seismic engineering
Seismic phenomena
Seismicity
Seismology
Italy
earthquake forecasting
Region–Time–Length
precursory seismic activity
Italy
improved RTL
seismic quiescence
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Summary:The Region–Time–Length (RTL) algorithm has been applied to different instrumental catalogues to detect seismic quiescence before medium-to-large earthquakes in Italy in the last two decades. RTL performances are sensitive to the choice of spatial and temporal parameters. The method for automatic parameters selection developed by Chen and Wu has been applied to twelve Italian earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5. The limits of the method in constructing maps of seismic quiescence before the earthquake are demonstrated, and a simple improvement is proposed. Then a new technique, namely RTL surv , is proposed for routine surveys of the Italian seismicity. RTL surv has been applied to all the earthquakes with magnitude greater than 4 in the Italian area in the time interval 1994–2004; four different sub-areas have been identified, with different characteristics in the level of recorded seismicity. One subarea—Tyrrhenian Sea—was characterized by a too low level of recorded seismicity for the application of the method. In the other three subareas a seismic quiescence was detected before at least the 66% of the earthquakes with magnitude greater or equal to 4 and all the earthquakes with magnitude greater than 5.
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ISSN:0033-4553
1420-9136
DOI:10.1007/s00024-010-0089-x