Evidence of $q$-exponential statistics in Greek seismicity

TL;DR

This study analyzes Greek seismicity from 1976 to 2009 using Non-extensive Statistical Physics, revealing that earthquake interevent times follow a $q$-exponential distribution indicative of nonlinear memory effects.

Contribution

It demonstrates that seismic interevent times in Greece are well modeled by a $q$-exponential distribution, providing new insights into earthquake dynamics through non-extensive statistical physics.

Findings

Interevent times follow a $q$-exponential distribution

Both entire and declustered datasets fit the model well

Evidence of long-term memory in seismic activity

Abstract

We study the seismicity (global seismic activity) that occurred in Greece between 1976 and 2009 based on the dataset reported in Makropoulos et al., 2012, using concepts of Non-extensive Statistical Physics. By considering the entire and declustered datasets, for which the aftershocks have been removed, we initially investigate the frequency-magnitude distribution and find that both datasets are well approximated by a physical model derived in the framework of Non-extensive Statistical Physics. We then carry out a study of the distribution of interevent times of seismic events for different magnitude thresholds and discover that the data are well approximated by a statistical distribution of the $q$-exponential type that allows us to compute analytically the hazard function of earthquake production. Our analysis thus reveals further evidence that the underlying dynamical process of earthquake birth reflects a kind of nonlinear memory due to long-term persistence of seismic events.