Seismicity characterization of oceanic earthquakes in the Mexican territory

Abstract

We analyzed the seismicity of oceanic earthquakes in the Pacific oceanic regime of Mexico. We used data from the earthquake catalogues of the Mexican National Service (SSN) and the International Seismological Centre (ISC) from 1967 to 2017. Events were classified into two different categories: intraplate oceanic (INT) and transform fault zone and mid-ocean ridges (TF-MOR) events, respectively. For each category, we determined statistical characteristics such as magnitude frequency distributions, the aftershocks decay rate, the nonextensivity parameters, and the regional stress field. We obtained b values of 1.17 and 0.82 for the INT and TF-MOR events, respectively. TF-MOR events also exhibit local b-value variations in the range of 0.72–1.30. TF-MOR events follow a tapered Gutenberg–Richter distribution. We also obtained a p value of 0.67 for the 1 May 1997 (Mw=6.9) earthquake. By analyzing the nonextensivity parameters, we obtained similar q values in the range of 1.39–1.60 for both types of earthquakes. On the other hand, the parameter a showed a clear differentiation, being higher for TF-MOR events than for INT events. An important implication is that more energy is released for TF-MOR events than for INT events. Stress orientations are in agreement with geodynamical models for transform fault zone and mid-ocean ridge zones. In the case of intraplate seismicity, stresses are mostly related to a normal fault regime.