A Nonextensive Statistical Physics Analysis of the 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake

Advanced search
Browse by:

Department | Year

UCL Theses | Latest

Deposit your research

A Nonextensive Statistical Physics Analysis of the 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake

Papadakis, G; Vallianatos, F; Sammonds, P; (2015) A Nonextensive Statistical Physics Analysis of the 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake. Pure and Applied Geophysics , 172 (7) pp. 1923-1931. 10.1007/s00024-014-0876-x. Green open access

[thumbnail of art_10.1007_s00024-014-0876-x.pdf]

Preview

PDF
art_10.1007_s00024-014-0876-x.pdf
Download (1MB)

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the distribution of earthquake magnitudes for the period 1990–1998 in a broad area surrounding the epicenter of the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The frequency–magnitude distribution analysis is performed in a nonextensive statistical physics context. The nonextensive parameter q M , which is related to the frequency-magnitude distribution, reflects the existence of long-range correlations and is used as an index of the physical state of the studied area. Examination of the possible variations of q M values is performed during the period 1990–1998. A significant increase of q M occurs some months before the strong earthquake on April 9, 1994 indicating the start of a preparation phase prior to the Kobe earthquake. It should be noted that this increase coincides with the occurrence of six seismic events. Each of these events had a magnitude M = 4.1. The evolution of seismicity along with the increase of q M indicate the system’s transition away from equilibrium and its preparation for energy release. It seems that the variations of q M values reflect rather well the physical evolution towards the 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Type:	Article
Title:	A Nonextensive Statistical Physics Analysis of the 1995 Kobe, Japan Earthquake
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1007/s00024-014-0876-x
Publisher version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00024-014-0876-x
Language:	English
Additional information:	© 2014 The Author(s). This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1463395