Time pattern of large earthquake sequences in Europe in 1976–1979

Summary The time development of three large sequences, Friuli 1976, Thessaloniki 1978 and Monte Negro-Albania 1979, was investigated by analysing the characteristics of the time distribution of magnitudes of the events, M(t), of average magnitudes,(t), and of the number of events, n(t), as well as the strain release curves and the magnitude-frequency relations, N(M). The existence of time gaps and of an anomalous decay of the numbers of shocks before major events, as well as the oscillation of ( const b^–1) may be considered as precursory phenomena. The clustering of events has been tested by the Poisson and negative binomial laws.Communication presented at the XVIIth General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission in Budapest, 21–29 August, 1980 under the title Properties of Seismic Regime and Recent Earthquake Sequences in Europe.