On the spatial correlation between areas of high coseismic slip and aftershock clusters of the Maule earthquake Mw=8.8

TL;DR

This study investigates the spatial relationship between high coseismic slip regions and aftershock clusters of the 2010 Maule earthquake, revealing a correlation between slip magnitude and aftershock frequency.

Contribution

It introduces a nonparametric clustering approach to identify spatial correlations between coseismic slip and aftershock distribution.

Findings

High coseismic slip areas correlate with increased aftershock frequency.

The clustering method effectively identifies regions of high seismic activity.

Results support the hypothesis of spatial correlation between slip and aftershocks.

Abstract

We study the spatial distribution of clusters associated to the aftershocks of the megathrust Maule earthquake MW 8.8 of 27 February 2010. We used a recent clustering method which hinges on a nonparametric estimation of the underlying probability density function to detect subsets of points forming clusters associated with high density areas. In addition, we estimate the probability density function using a nonparametric kernel method for each of these clusters. This allows us to identify a set of regions where there is an association between frequency of events and coseismic slip. Our results suggest that high coseismic slip spatially correlates with high aftershock frequency.