Nonextensive analysis of crustal seismicity in Taiwan

Abstract

Using the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau earthquake catalogue, the crustal seismicity of Taiwan was analyzed by means of a nonextensive approach. The time span of the analyzed catalogue is from 1 January 1990 to 30 November 2007, and only earthquakes with magnitude <i>M</i>&ge;2.0 were considered. Our findings reveal that the nonextensive statistics furnishes a very good prediction of the cumulative magnitude distribution of crustal seismicity in Taiwan, even if the aftershocks are removed, indicating that the approach is robust for clustered as well as declustered seismicity.