Abstract
Earthquake migration along linear seismic belts is investigated by analyzing spacetime diagrams using spectral analysis. In order to sample the earthquakes in the space-time domain, they must first be convolved with a (sinx sint)/xt surface to obtain an unbiased and alias free twodimensional Fourier spectrum. Further enhancements are provided by selectively stacking patterns (a pattern is defined as the distribution of earthquakes in space and time before a particular earthquake), thereby reinforcing the similarities within the various patterns. With these techniques, it is possible to quantitatively estimate the migration rates (from theirspatial frequencies) and recurrence intervals (from theirtemporal frequencies) of large earthquakes in South America.
Preliminary examination of the spectra for South America indicates that a low frequency peak occurs at approximately 2500 km and 27 years for earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 7.7. The results suggest a migration rate of approximately 95 km/yr from south to north and a recurrence interval of 27 years.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartlett, M. S. The spectral analysis of two-dimensional point processes, Biometrika51, 299–311.
Brigham, E. O.,The Fast Fourier Transform (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1974).
Dewey, J. (1976),Seismicity of northern Anatolia, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 66, 843–868.
Duda, S. J. (1965),Secular seismic energy release in the circum-Pacific belt, Tectonophysics2, 409–452.
French, A. S. andHolden A. V. (1971),Alias-free sampling of Neuronal spike trains, Kybernetik8, 5, 165–171.
Greensfelder, R. W. (1972),Crustal movement investigations in California; their history, data, and significance, Calif. Div. Mines Geol., Special Publ. 37.
Greensfelder, R. W. andBennett, J. H. (1973),Characteristics of strain variation along the San Andreas fault from geodimeter measurements, Standford Univ. Publ., Geol. Sci.XIII, 54–63.
Kagan, Y. andKnopoff, L. (1976),Statistical search for non-random features of the seismicity of strong earthquakes, Phys. Earth Planet. Int.12, 291–318.
Kagan, Y. andKnopoff, L. (1977),Earthquake risk prediction as a stochastic process, Phys. Earth Planet, Int.14, 97–108.
Kanamori, H. (1977),The energy release in great earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res.82, 20, 2981–2988.
Kanamori, H. (1978),Quantification of earthquakes Nature271, 411–414.
Kelleher, J. A. (1970),Space-time seismicity of the Alaska-Aleutian seismic zone, J. Geophys. Res.75, 29, 5745–5756.
Kelleher, J. A. (1972),Rupture zones of large South American earthquakes and some predictions, J. Geophys. Res.77, 2087–2103.
Kelleher, J., Sykes, L. andOliver J. (1973),Possible criteria for predicting earthquake locations and their application to major plate boundaries of the Pacific and the Caribbean, J. Geophys. Res.78, 14, 2547–2585.
Kelleher, J., Savino, J., Rowlett, H. andMcCann, W. (1974),Why and where great earthquakes occur along island arcs, J. Geophys. Res.79, 32, 4889–4899.
Kelleher, J. andSavino, J. (1975),Distribution of seismicity before large strike slip and thrust-type earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res.80, 2, 260–271.
Kelleher, J. andW. McCann, W. (1976),Buoyant zones, great earthquakes, and unstable boundaries of subduction, J. Geophys. Res.81, 26, 4885–4896.
Knopoff, L. (1964),The statistics of earthquakes in Southern California, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am.54, 1871–1873.
Lomnitz, C.,Global Tectonics and Earthquake Risk (Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co. 1974).
Mogi, K. (1968a),Migration of seismic activity, Bull. Earthquake Res. Inst.46, 53–74.
Mogi, K. (1968b),Sequential occurrences of recent great earthquakes, J. Phys. Earth16, 1, 30–36.
Papoulis, A.,Probabilty, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York 1965).
Papoulis, A.,Systems and Transforms with Applications in Optics (McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York 1968).
Rayner, J. N.,An Introduction to Spectral Analysis (Pion Limited, London 1971).
Scholz, C. H. (1977),A physical interpretation of the Haicheng earthquake prediction, Nature267, 121–124.
Schlien, S. andToksoz, M. N. (1970),A clustering model for earthquake occurrences, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am.60, 6, 1765–1787.
Telford, W. M., Geldart, L. P., Sheriff, R. E. andKeys, D. A.,Applied Geophysics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976).
Toksoz, M. N., Shakal, A. F. andMichael, A. J.,Space-time migration of earthquakes along the north Anatolian fault zone and seismic gaps. In Proc. of Conf. VI, Methodology for identifying seismic gaps and soon-to-break gaps. USGS Open-file report 78-943 (1978), 829–856.
U.S. Earthquakes,Principal Earthquakes of the World, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (1965 to 1974).
Wood, M. D. andAllen, S. S. (1973),Recurrence of seismic migrations along the central California segment of the San Andreas fault system, Nature244, 213–215.
Yang, M.,The effect of viscoelastic medium and earthquakes on plate motion, Personal communication (1976).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Delsemme, J., Smith, A.T. Spectral analysis of earthquake migration in South America. PAGEOPH 117, 1271–1285 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00876219
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00876219