Seismic risk in southern Europe through to India examined using Gumbel's third distribution of extreme values

Summary. A technique is described for the analysis of seismicity using Gumbel's third asymptotic distribution of extreme values. Seismicity of southern Europe through to India, nominally for the period 1900–74, is subdivided in a cellular manner, without recourse to tectonic discrimination between regions, and a covariance analysis on the three parameters of Gumbel's distribution is performed for each cell of seismicity. The results indicate that the upper bound to the magnitude of earthquake occurrence is often uncertain although it is discernible, while curvature of the earthquake occurrence distributions is usually established. Uncertainties in the forecasts of largest earthquakes, with a return period of 75 yr, are distinctly improved by taking into account the large and negative covariance which is measured between the curvature and upper bound to earthquake magnitude for the observed seismicity. These results are then used to map seismic risk for southern Europe through to India.     

Statistical analysis of strong-motion accelerograms and its application to earthquake early-warning systems

In view of increasing damage due to earthquakes, and the current problems of earthquake prediction, real-time warning of strong ground motion is attracting more interest. In principle, it allows short-term warning of earthquakes while they are occurring. With warning times of up to tens of seconds it is possible to send alerts to potential areas of strong shaking before the arrival of the seismic waves and to mitigate the damage, but only if the seismic source parameters are determined rapidly. The major problem of an early-warning system is the real-time estimation of the earthquake's size.
We investigated digitized strong-motion accelerograms from 244 earthquakes that occurred in North and Central America between 1940 and 1986 to find out whether their initial portions reflected the size of the ongoing earthquake. Applying conventional methods of time-series analyses we calculate appropriate signal parameters and describe their uncertainties in relation to the magnitude and epicentral distance. The study reveals that the magnitude of an earthquake can be predicted from the first second of a single accelerogram within ±1.36 magnitude units. The uncertainty can be reduced to about ±0.5 magnitude units if a larger number (≥8) of accelerograms are available, which requires a dense network of seismic stations in areas of high seismic risk.     

Estimating maximum magnitude earthquakes in Iraq using extreme value statistics

Summary. Extreme value theory is used to estimate maximum magnitude earthquakes in Iraq (29–38°N, 39–48°E). The seismicity file for the period 1905–1982 is used to determine the recurrence relationship as well as the parameters of Gumbel types I and III asymptotic distributions.
The statistical parameters are estimated by both least squares and maximum likelihood techniques. Results show that although the least squares upper magnitude is closer in value to actual earthquake magnitude, the maximum likelihood approximation to the third distribution appears to show a better overall fit to the data sample. This result is reflected in the calculated probability of occurrence of earthquake risk over various design periods.     

The role of seismicity models in probabilistic seismic hazard estimation: comparison of a zoning and a smoothing approach

Seismic hazard estimations are compared using two approaches based on two different seismicity models: one which models earthquake recurrence by applying the truncated Gutenberg-Richter law and a second one which smoothes the epicentre location of past events according to the fractal distribution of earthquakes in space ( Woo 1996 ). The first method requires the definition of homogeneous source zones and the determination of maximum possible magnitudes whereas the second method requires the definition of a smoothing function. Our results show that the two approaches lead to similar hazard estimates in low seismicity regions. In regions of increased seismic activity, on the other hand, the smoothing approach yields systematically lower estimates than the zoning method. This epicentre-smoothing approach can thus be considered as a lower bound estimator for seismic hazard and can help in decision making in moderate seismicity regions where source zone definition and estimation of maximum possible magnitudes can lead to a wide variety of estimates due to lack of knowledge. The two approaches lead, however, to very different earthquake scenarios. Disaggregation studies at a representative number of sites show that if the distributions of contributions according to source–site distance are comparable between the two approaches, the distributions of contributions according to magnitude differ, reflecting the very different seismicity models used. The epicentre-smoothing method leads to scenarios with predominantly intermediate magnitudes events (5 ≤ M ≤ 5.5) while the zoning method leads to scenarios with magnitudes that increase with the return period from the minimum to the maximum magnitudes considered. These trends demonstrate that the seismicity model used plays a fundamental role in the determination of the controlling scenarios and ways to discriminate between the most appropriate models remains an important issue.     

Perceptible earthquakes in the United Kingdom

Summary. Earthquake occurrence in the United Kingdom is analysed using Gumbel's third type asymptotic distribution of extreme values. Uncertainties in both the parameters and predictions derived from the Gumbel distribution are obtained and it is shown that an earthquake with body-wave magnitude slightly over five is the one most likely to be perceived at any point in the United Kingdom.     

中国地震发生频率与烈度的空间分布

考虑不同区域地震记录具有时间长度不等的特点,对“震中分布分震级网格点密集值”算法进行改进,结合 GIS 的空间分析方法将地震目录中的点数据空间化为能反映地震发生频率的栅格数据;依据地震震级和烈度的关 系以及地震烈度在空间上的椭圆衰减模型,选择逼近和近似的计算手段,并结合空间插值方法得到中国地震烈度 分布的栅格图。从地震频率分布结果上看,大致以宁夏、甘肃、四川和云南为界,中国西部地区3 级以上的地震发生 频率要高于东部地区;从地震烈度分布结果看,中国甘肃、陕西、宁夏、山西、河北、四川、云南等位于地震带内的区 域在发生地震时产生的烈度较高。     

四川雅安芦山地震灾区次生地质灾害评估及对策建议

2013年4月20日08点02分,四川雅安芦山县发生了7.0级强震。此次地震发生的区域地形条件复杂,地震烈度大,使得震区地质条件进一步恶化,在强降雨等叠加等条件下,次生地质灾害风险显著加剧。本文收集了震区地形、地质、构造断层分布、地震烈度分布、历史灾害、降雨以及卫星影像等资料,对震区的次生地质灾害的危险性从以下3个方面进行了评估:① 地震力触发下震区次生地质灾害空间分布;② 不同降雨触发下震区次生地质灾害空间分布及趋势分析;③ 地震与降雨共同作用下震区次生地质灾害空间分布。在此基础上圈定了震区次生地质灾害高危和需要重点监测防范区域,为灾害救援与重建过程中次生地质灾害的防范提出了对策建议。     

面向地震应急准备的居民地遥感提取及量化分析

运用灰度共生矩阵、数学形态学等方法提取新疆新源地区高分一号2 m分辨率影像居民地信息,运用目视解译、影像叠加分析、缓冲区分析等方法,进行居民地量化分级,为地震应急准备提供数据支持。结果表明：研究区在地震烈度为Ⅷ度及以下区域,埋压主要集中在单层结构为主的建筑区;当地震烈度高于Ⅷ度且造成多层建筑大面积倒塌时,县城等人口密集区为首要救援区;在地震应急准备时,应对交通条件三等区和交通条件四等区重点关注,增加应急物资储备点,对山区居民地,应考虑道路毁坏情况,转换救援方式,做好应急预案。     

The Turkish Dilatancy Project (TDP3): multidisciplinary studies of a potential earthquake source region

Summary. The section of the North Anatolian Fault lying near the city of Izmit, at the east of the Marmara Sea, has been identified as a seismic gap and the possible site of a future major earthquake. Previously published studies of records from an earthquake swarm within the gap (TDP1 and TDP2) provided the first evidence that shear-wave splitting occurs in earthquake source regions, a conclusion since verified by many studies at other locations. A third field study (TDP3) was mounted in the Izmit region during the summer of 1984. Observations were made over an eight-month period and included geomagnetic and geoelectric measurements in addition to a series of observations utilising dense arrays of three-component seismometers. Earthquake activity in the principal study area was monitored over a period of eight months. Records showed features similar to those observed in the earlier studies. In particular: (1) almost all shear waves emerging within the shear-wave window displayed shear-wave splitting; and (2) the polarizations of the first arriving (faster) split shear-waves showed sub-parallel alignments, characteristic of propagation through a distribution of parallel vertical cracks striking perpendicular to the minimum compressional stress.
These and other observations support the conclusion of earlier studies – that the upper crust is pervaded by distributions of micro-cracks aligned by stress, known as extensive-dilatancy anisotropy. A search for time dependence in shear-wave phenomena has revealed temporal variations in the delays between the split shear-waves throughout the course of the TDP3 study, but as yet this has not been correlated with specific earthquake activity.     

中国地震灾害人口死亡风险定量评估(英文)

基于地震灾害风险形成机理,在建立人口震害脆弱性曲线与确定地震发生参数的基础上,本文利用评估模型对我国Ⅴ-Ⅺ地震烈度下各县域单元的人口死亡风险进行评估并分析其空间分布格局。主要研究内容有:(1)首次采用基于过去—现在—未来的多方面地震孕灾环境资料来处理地震发生的可能性。具体综合历史地震综合烈度、地震活动断裂带分布、地震动峰值加速度三方面来确定全国2355个县域单元的地震发生参数;(2)利用1990-2009年我国历史地震灾情数据,对地震烈度与人员死亡率之间进行线性拟合,建立适合我国地震灾害风险评估的震害人口死亡脆弱性曲线;(3)利用震害风险评估模型对我国各县域单元的人口死亡风险进行定量评估,并分析风险空间分布格局,彻底摸清Ⅴ-Ⅺ地震烈度下我国各县域单元的地震灾害人口死亡风险。研究表明:在不同地震烈度下,我国广大的东、中部地区面临更高的风险,而西部的人口死亡风险相对较低。高风险区域呈零星状分布于山东与江苏大部、安徽北部、黑龙江与吉林东部等人口分布较密集且孕灾环境发育完备的区域。而无风险区域在全国范围内呈斑块状散布,分布格局基本保持不变。     

Simulating a seismic series using geostatistical and stochastic methods: application to the seismic series in the Alborán Sea (1997 June 24–?)

Seismic series can be taken as examples of correlated unstationary sets of time-stochastic sequences. We investigate the possibility of estimating what is most probable to occur subsequently, if we know the events that have occurred up to a given moment.
The stochastic methods can be used with data of the seismic series, irrespective of their genesis and origin. Using three stochastic methods, namely (1) simulating the likelihood of occurrence by conditional geostatistical simulation; (2) developing a stochastic analysis of the energy release by means of energy packages; and (3) calculating the occurrence time of the most probable next earthquake, we were able to simulate the occurrence of earthquakes that took place during the Alborán Sea seismic series (1997–1998).
We conclude that it is possible to set limits on the time of occurrence and energy release, understood as the magnitude of the most probable earthquake, during the development of a seismic sequence and prior to the actual occurrence of the earthquake.     

Seismic hazard in central southern Africa

Seismic hazard maps of central-southern Africa where hazard has been expressed in terms of peak ground acceleration for an annual probability in excess of 10^-1 show relatively high values that distinguish the seismic hazard potential of the Deka fault zone, the mid-Zambezi basin-Luangwa rift and western central Mozambique. In areas such as central-southern Africa where little is known about the geology of the region and the fault systems have not been fully mapped, seismic hazard potential may be estimated from seismicity and broad-scale fault features. For this region, such potential is based on earthquake magnitude M_s ≥ 6. Events of such magnitude have recently occurred in the mid-Zambezi basin, southern Zimbabwe and western-central Mozambique. This paper follows the conventional probabilistic hazard analysis procedure, defining seismic source zones from seismicity based on instrumental records from a cataloque that spans a period of 83 years. Geological and geomorphological features in the region are described on the mesoscale and are correlated with the seismicity as broad fault zones. The scarcity of strong-motion accelerogram data necessitated the formulation of attenuation values based on random vibration theory (RVT).     

基于信息扩散理论的中国西部地区地震风险评估

利用全国地震目录数据库,系统梳理建国以来中国西部地区5.0级以上地震信息;利用信息扩散理论,从年最大震级和各级地震灾害年频次两个方面对西部12省、市、自治区的地震灾害进行风险评估。在此基础上,将风险估计离散值进行曲线拟合,系统评价中国西部地震最为多发5省区的地震风险分布趋势及差异,定量揭示中国西部地区地震风险,为西部地区地震防灾减灾提供技术支持和决策建议。     

Coseismic slip model of the 2007 August Pisco earthquake (Peru) as constrained by Wide Swath radar observations

The Pisco earthquake ( M _w 8.0; 2007 August 15) occurred offshore of Peru's southern coast at the subduction interface between the Nazca and South American plates. It ruptured a previously identified seismic gap along the Peruvian margin. We use Wide Swath InSAR observations acquired by the Envisat satellite in descending and ascending orbits to constrain coseismic slip distribution of this subduction earthquake. The data show movement of the coastal regions by as much as 85 cm in the line-of-sight of the satellite. Distributed-slip model indicates that the coseismic slip reaches values of about 5.5 m at a depth of ∼18–20 km. The slip is confined to less than 40 km depth, with most of the moment release located on the shallow parts of the interface above 30 km depth. The region with maximum coseismic slip in the InSAR model is located offshore, close to the seismic moment centroid location. The geodetic estimate of seismic moment is 1.23 × 10²¹ Nm ( M _w 8.06), consistent with seismic estimates. The slip model inferred from the InSAR observations suggests that the Pisco earthquake ruptured only a portion of the seismic gap zone in Peru between 13.5° S and 14.5° S, hence there is still a significant seismic gap to the south of the 2007 event that has not experienced a large earthquake since at least 1687.     

The fractal geometry of the surface ruptures of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, Taiwan

The 1999 September 20 Chi-Chi earthquake is the largest seismic event which occurred in the island during the twentieth century. Available seismic data relative to this earthquake are of high quality, and surface ruptures identified as features associated to the Chelungpu fault can be clearly observed at the surface and precisely mapped. We calculated the fractal dimension ( D ) and b value of Gutenberg–Richter law for 6-month aftershocks of the Chi-Chi earthquake for the fault area, and find that the surface ruptures exhibit self-similar geometry only within specific ruler intervals. The D values of the surface ruptures reflect the fault slip and geometry at depth. More importantly, the small-size aftershocks seem more likely to occur within high D value and high b value areas, whereas small D value and small b value areas have a high potential for medium- and large-size aftershocks.     

Simulations of strong ground motion in SW Iberia for the 1969 February 28 (Ms= 8.0) and the 1755 November 1 (M∼ 8.5) earthquakes – II. Strong ground motion simulations

This is the second paper of a series of two concerning strong ground motion in SW Iberia due to earthquakes originating from the adjacent Atlantic area. The aim of this paper is to use the velocity model that was proposed and validated in the companion paper for seismic intensity modelling of the 1969 ( M _s= 8.0) and 1755 ( M = 8.5–8.7) earthquakes.
First, we propose a regression to convert simulated values of Peak Ground Velocity (PGV) into Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) in SW Iberia, and using this regression, we build synthetic isoseismal maps for a large ( M _s= 8.0) earthquake that occurred in 1969. Based on information on the seismic source provided by various authors, we show that the velocity model effectively reproduces macroseismic observations in the whole region. We also confirm that seismic intensity distribution is very sensitive to a small number of source parameters: rupture directivity, fault strike and fault dimensions. Then, we extrapolate the method to the case of the great ( M = 8.5–8.7) 1755 earthquake, for a series of hypotheses recently proposed by three authors about the location of the epicentral region. The model involving a subduction-related rupture in the Gulf of Cádiz results in excessive ground motion in northern Morocco, suggesting that the source of the 1755 earthquake should be located further west. A rupture along the western coast of Portugal, compatible with an activation of the passive western Iberian margin, would imply a relatively low average slip, which, alone, would could not account for the large tsunami observed in the whole northern Atlantic ocean. A seismic source located below the Gorringe Bank seems the most likely since it is more efficient in reproducing the distribution of high intensities in SW Iberia due to the 1755 earthquake.     

Application of conditional geostatistical simulation to calculate the probability of occurrence of earthquakes belonging to a seismic series

Geostatistics offers various techniques of estimation and simulation that have been satisfactorily applied in solving geological problems. In this sense, conditional geostatistical simulation is applied to calculate the probability of occurrence of an earthquake with a lower than or equal magnitude to one determined during a seismic series. It is possible to calculate the energy of the next most probable earthquake from a specific time, given knowledge of the structure existing among earthquakes occurring prior to a specific moment.     

An estimate of hypocentre location accuracy in a large network: possible implications for tectonic studies in Italy

Data recorded by the Italian Telemetered Seismic Network (ITSN) of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica (ING) have been widely used in recent years to image slab structures and to find evidence for active processes along the Italian Peninsula. However, the use of seismic data for geostructural purposes may be affected by the well-known trade-off between earthquake location and seismic-velocity parameters. Furthermore, the confidence ellipse predicted by standard procedures may be inadequate for the representation of the probable error of a computed localization. This paper evaluates the probable errors on the hypocentre determinations of the seismic events recorded by the ITSN, using a Monte Carlo method.
We compute synthetic arrival times using a 1-D velocity model appropriate as an average for the Italian area. The hypocentres used are all those recorded by the ITSN during the period January 1992 to March 1994 (1972 events). Station locations are those of the current ITSN configuration. The synthetic arrival times are perturbed with a Gaussian distribution of errors and input to ING's standard hypocentral location procedure, but using crustal velocities differing by 10 per cent from those used to generate them. Each simulation is repeated at least 30 times. Average absolute shifts of hypocentres are assessed in grid cells of linear dimension 33 km covering the whole Italian region.
For regions within the ITSN, shifts are typically 5–10 km in location and up to 20 km in depth. However, for offshore and coastal regions, they are much greater: 50 km or more in both location and depth (far exceeding the equivalent uncertainties quoted by ING bulletins). Possible consequences of this are highlighted by producing a cross-section of subcrustal hypocentres from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where the large uncertainty in depth precludes any confident interpretation of dipping tectonic features.     

四川地区地震崩塌滑坡的基本特征及危险性分区

四川地区地震崩塌及滑坡非常发育，时常造成严重灾害，本文在现场调查资料及已有研究的基础上，对四川地区地震崩塌，滑坡的分布规律，类型，特征及其灾害性进行了更深入的分析，并就其特征进行了分区。