Wavelet Analysis of Earthquake Activity in the West of the Chinese Mainland and Its Adjacent Area

Wavelets are a useful tool for analyzing the time-frequency of a non-stable series and are widely applied in many fields. The process of earthquake preparation and occurrence is a non-linear process. In the paper, the wavelet method is used to analyze the series of earthquake data for the time period from 1900 to 2003 in the west of the Chinese mainland and its adjacent area (WCMAA), and to obtain the characteristic information for different time scales. In the past 103 years, there were four primary periods of regional earthquake activity in the area with durations of 42, 22, 7 and 14 years, respectively and the intensity of earthquake activity changing with time. It doesn't make sense to talk about active or quiet periods of earthquake activity unless it is based on a specific time scale. In addition, the tendency analysis of earthquake activity using the primary period of seismic activity and wavelet coefficients of varied time scales indicates that the earthquake activity in this region will be high in the forthcoming years.