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The largest aftershock: How strong, how far away, how delayed?
Author(s) -
Tahir M.,
Grasso J.R.,
Amorèse D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl050604
Subject(s) - aftershock , geology , magnitude (astronomy) , seismology , focal mechanism , sequence (biology) , power law , geodesy , fault (geology) , mathematics , physics , statistics , astronomy , biology , genetics
Proposed in the 1950's, Båth's law states that the largest aftershock has a magnitude that is typically 1.2 less than that of the mainshock. Thirty years of the global earthquake catalog allow us to extend Båth's law in time, space and focal mechanism. On average, reverse faults have a smaller magnitude and distance from the mainshock to largest aftershock than strike‐slip faults. The distribution of the time intervals between mainshocks and their largest aftershocks obeys power law, but with a somewhat faster rate of decay than for aftershocks, in general. This implies that the largest aftershocks are more likely to occur earlier rather than later in a given sequence of aftershocks.