Fractal analysis of shallow and intermediate-depth seismicity of Hindu Kush. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hayat, Umar; Barkat, Adnan; Ali, Aamir; Rehman, Khaista; Sifat, Shazia; Iqbal, Talat
• Is Part Of: Chaos, solitons and fractals. Volume 128(2019)
• Page Start: 71
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: Earthquake -- Hurst exponent -- R/S analysis -- Seismicity -- Hindu Kush; Chaotic behavior in systems -- Periodicals; Solitons -- Periodicals; Fractals -- Periodicals; Chaotic behavior in systems; Fractals; Solitons; Periodicals; 003.7
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2019.07.029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0960-0779

Abstract

Highlights: Spatio-temporal distribution of earthquake owns the property of long-memory correlations. Hindu Kush regions has two different seismicity settings as confirm by fractal statistics. Hurst exponent has implications for earthquake occurrence probability. Abstract: Statistical seismology helps in understanding the underlying seismicity properties using some well-known scaling relations that characterize different aspects of earthquake distribution. Among these scaling relations the Hurst ( H ) exponent has been extensively used to demonstrate the fractal properties of earthquake activity. In this study, we investigate the long-range correlations of seismicity parameters of shallow and intermediate-depth earthquakes of the Hindu Kush region using H statistics. The H index is computed for time window of 200 events with a slide of 15 data points on a complete and de-clustered catalog (1960–2007) prepared by Rehman et al. (2017). The long-range characteristics of seismicity are explored using size, time, space, depth and energy release. For shallow seismicity, the persistency (0.5 ≤ H ≤ 1) is found to be dominant except in a few periods of random walk. Contrary to this, intermediate-depth events show an evident change in H index around the time of major seismic events. Furthermore, the comparison of fractal behaviour of shallow and intermediate-depth seismicity confirms a notable difference in statistical properties. Our results also serve as a baseline study for seismicity analysis using multi-fractal approach for this region.