5,477 research outputs found
Estimating the maximum possible earthquake magnitude using extreme value methodology: the Groningen case
The area-characteristic, maximum possible earthquake magnitude is
required by the earthquake engineering community, disaster management agencies
and the insurance industry. The Gutenberg-Richter law predicts that earthquake
magnitudes follow a truncated exponential distribution. In the geophysical
literature several estimation procedures were proposed, see for instance Kijko
and Singh (Acta Geophys., 2011) and the references therein. Estimation of
is of course an extreme value problem to which the classical methods for
endpoint estimation could be applied. We argue that recent methods on truncated
tails at high levels (Beirlant et al., Extremes, 2016; Electron. J. Stat.,
2017) constitute a more appropriate setting for this estimation problem. We
present upper confidence bounds to quantify uncertainty of the point estimates.
We also compare methods from the extreme value and geophysical literature
through simulations. Finally, the different methods are applied to the
magnitude data for the earthquakes induced by gas extraction in the Groningen
province of the Netherlands
PreSEIS: A Neural Network-Based Approach to Earthquake Early Warning for Finite Faults
The major challenge in the development of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems is the achievement of a robust performance at largest possible warning time. We have developed a new method for EEW—called PreSEIS (Pre-SEISmic)—that is as quick as methods that are based on single station observations and, at the same time, shows a higher robustness than most other approaches. At regular timesteps after the triggering of the first EEW sensor, PreSEIS estimates the most likely source parameters of an earthquake using the available information on ground motions at different sensors in a seismic network. The approach is based on two-layer feed-forward neural networks to estimate the earthquake hypocenter location, its moment magnitude, and the expansion of the evolving seismic rupture. When applied to the Istanbul Earthquake Rapid Response and Early Warning System (IERREWS), PreSEIS estimates the moment magnitudes of 280 simulated finite faults scenarios (4.5≤M≤7.5) with errors of less than ±0.8 units after 0.5 sec, ±0.5 units after 7.5 sec, and ±0.3 units after 15.0 sec. In the same time intervals, the mean location errors can be reduced from 10 km over 6 km to less than 5 km, respectively. Our analyses show that the uncertainties of the estimated parameters (and thus of the warnings) decrease with time. This reveals a trade-off between the reliability of the warning on the one hand, and the remaining warning time on the other hand. Moreover, the ongoing update of predictions with time allows PreSEIS to handle complex ruptures, in which the largest fault slips do not occur close to the point of rupture initiation. The estimated expansions of the seismic ruptures lead to a clear enhancement of alert maps, which visualize the level and distribution of likely ground shaking in the affected region seconds before seismic waves will arrive
Power Law Distributions of Offspring and Generation Numbers in Branching Models of Earthquake Triggering
We consider a general stochastic branching process, which is relevant to
earthquakes as well as to many other systems, and we study the distributions of
the total number of offsprings (direct and indirect aftershocks in seismicity)
and of the total number of generations before extinction. We apply our results
to a branching model of triggered seismicity, the ETAS (epidemic-type
aftershock sequence) model. The ETAS model assumes that each earthquake can
trigger other earthquakes (``aftershocks''). An aftershock sequence results in
this model from the cascade of aftershocks of each past earthquake. Due to the
large fluctuations of the number of aftershocks triggered directly by any
earthquake (``fertility''), there is a large variability of the total number of
aftershocks from one sequence to another, for the same mainshock magnitude. We
study the regime where the distribution of fertilities mu is characterized by a
power law ~1/\mu^(1+gamma). For earthquakes, we expect such a power-law
distribution of fertilities with gamma = b/alpha based on the Gutenberg-Richter
magnitude distribution ~10^(-bm) and on the increase ~10^(alpha m) of the
number of aftershocks with the mainshock magnitude m. We derive the asymptotic
distributions p_r(r) and p_g(g) of the total number r of offsprings and of the
total number g of generations until extinction following a mainshock. In the
regime \gamma<2 relevant for earhquakes, for which the distribution of
fertilities has an infinite variance, we find p_r(r)~1/r^(1+1/gamma) and
p_g(g)~1/g^(1+1/(gamma -1)). These predictions are checked by numerical
simulations.Comment: revtex, 12 pages, 2 ps figures. In press in Pure and Applied
Geophysics (2004
Neural Network Models for Nuclear Treaty Monitoring: Enhancing the Seismic Signal Pipeline with Deep Temporal Convolution
Seismic signal processing at the IDC is critical to global security, facilitating the detection and identification of covert nuclear tests in near-real time. This dissertation details three research studies providing substantial enhancements to this pipeline. Study 1 focuses on signal detection, employing a TCN architecture directly against raw real-time data streams and effecting a 4 dB increase in detector sensitivity over the latest operational methods. Study 2 focuses on both event association and source discrimination, utilizing a TCN-based triplet network to extract source-specific features from three-component seismograms, and providing both a complimentary validation measure for event association and a one-shot classifier for template-based source discrimination. Finally, Study 3 focuses on event localization, and employs a TCN architecture against three-component seismograms in order to confidently predict backazimuth angle and provide a three-fold increase in usable picks over traditional polarization analysis
Diurnal and semidiurnal cyclicity of Radon (222Rn) in groundwater, Giardino Spring, Central Apennines, Italy
Understanding natural variations of Rn (222Rn) concentrations is the fundamental
prerequisite of using this radioactive gas as a tracer, or even precursor, of natural processes, including
earthquakes. In this work, Rn concentrations in groundwater were continuously measured over
a seven-month period, during 2017, in the Giardino Spring, Italy, together with groundwater levels
in a nearby well installed into a fractured regional aquifer. Data were processed to reduce noise,
and then analyzed to produce the Fourier spectra of Rn concentrations and groundwater levels.
These spectra were compared with the spectrum of tidal forces. Results showed that diurnal and
semidiurnal cycles of Rn concentrations, and filtered oscillations of groundwater levels, in the nearby
well, are correlated with solar and luni-solar components of tidal forces, and suggested no correlation
with the principal lunar components. Therefore, influencing factors linked to solar cycles, such as
daily oscillations of temperature and atmospheric pressure, and related rock deformations, may have
played a role in Rn concentrations and groundwater levels. An open question remains regarding the
correlation, which is documented elsewhere, of Rn concentrations and groundwater levels with the
lunar components of the solid Earth tides
Dynamical system analysis and forecasting of deformation produced by an earthquake fault
We present a method of constructing low-dimensional nonlinear models
describing the main dynamical features of a discrete 2D cellular fault zone,
with many degrees of freedom, embedded in a 3D elastic solid. A given fault
system is characterized by a set of parameters that describe the dynamics,
rheology, property disorder, and fault geometry. Depending on the location in
the system parameter space we show that the coarse dynamics of the fault can be
confined to an attractor whose dimension is significantly smaller than the
space in which the dynamics takes place. Our strategy of system reduction is to
search for a few coherent structures that dominate the dynamics and to capture
the interaction between these coherent structures. The identification of the
basic interacting structures is obtained by applying the Proper Orthogonal
Decomposition (POD) to the surface deformations fields that accompany
strike-slip faulting accumulated over equal time intervals. We use a
feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) architecture for the
identification of the system dynamics projected onto the subspace (model space)
spanned by the most energetic coherent structures. The ANN is trained using a
standard back-propagation algorithm to predict (map) the values of the observed
model state at a future time given the observed model state at the present
time. This ANN provides an approximate, large scale, dynamical model for the
fault.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure
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