Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Testing the Earthquake Early-Warning Parameter Correlations in the Southern Iberian Peninsula

  • Published:
Pure and Applied Geophysics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The south of the Iberian Peninsula is of especial interest for the application of Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) technologies due to the past occurrence of damaging earthquakes such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. However, there are several critical issues that need to be addressed in order to develop an EEWS in this area. The first is the magnitude scale inhomogeneity of the available catalogues. A second is that most of the available broad-band seismograms for this area correspond to earthquakes with magnitudes less than 6.0, recorded at distances greater than 100 km, and sometimes with a low signal-to-noise ratio. And third, the occurrence of large earthquakes in this area means that the standard EEWS time window normally used needs to be tested in order to check whether it is long enough. Our paper describes the results of homogenizing the catalogue magnitudes by using empirical relationships to obtain the moment magnitude Mw. A criterion based on a threshold value for the signal-to-noise ratio is applied in order to avoid noise-contaminated seismogram data. An important part of the study is a check of whether the correlations previously obtained for south Iberia are valid for other neighbouring areas such as Algeria, and for larger earthquakes. Finally, since recent studies have shown that the larger the earthquake the longer the time window needed to properly estimate the magnitude, the window was increased progressively from 0 to 20 s in order to study the behaviour of the EEWS parameters for the largest earthquakes in the database.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, R.M., P. Gasparini, O., Kamigaichi and Bose, M. (2009). The Status of Earthquake Early Warning around the World: An Introductory Overview. Seism. Res. Lett., 80, no. 5, 682–693.

  • Ayadi, A., et al. (2003). Strong Algerian earthquake strikes near capital city, EOS Trans. AGU, 84(50), 561, 568.

  • Biggs J., Bergman E., Emmerson B., Funning G., Jackson J., Parsons B. and Wright T. (2006). Fault identification for buried strike-slip earthquakes using InSAR: The 1994 and 2004 Al Hoceima, Morocco earthquakes. Geophys. J. Int. 2006; 166:1347–1362.

  • Buforn, E., Udías, A. and Colombás, M. A. (1988). Seismicity and focal mechanisms in south Spain. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 2008–2024.

  • Buforn, E., Bezzeghoud, M., Udías, A. and Pro, C. (2004). Seismic sources in the Iberia-African plate boundary and their tectonic implications. Pure appl. Geophys. 161, 623–646.

  • Buforn, E., Benito, B., Sanz De Galdeano, C., Del Fresno, C., Muñoz, D. and Rodríguez, I. (2005). Study of the Damaging Earthquakes of 1911, 1999 and 2002 in the Murcia, Southeastern Spain, region: seismotectonic and seismic-risk implications. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. Vol. 95, No. 2, pp. 549–567.

  • Buforn, E., Udías, A. and Pro, C. (2015). Large Earthquakes at the Ibero-Maghrebian Region: Basis for an EEWS. Pure appl. Geophys. doi:10.1007/s00024-014-0954.

  • Cabañas, L., Rivas, A., Martínez-Solares, J.M., Gaspar-Escribano, J., Benito, B., Antón, R. and Ruiz-Barajas, S. (2012). Preparación y homogeneización de un catálogo sísmico para la evaluación de la peligrosidad sísmica en España. 7ª AHPGG Donostia, 25–29 June 2012.

  • Carranza, M., Buforn, E., Colombelli, S. and Zollo, A. (2013). Earthquake early warning for southern Iberia: A P wave threshold-based approach. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 4588–4593.

  • Cesca, S., Buforn, E. and Dahm, T. (2006). Amplitude spectra moment tensor inversion of shallow earthquakes in Spain, Geophys. J. Int, 166:839–854.

  • Colombelli, S., Zollo, A., Festa, G. and Kanamori, H. (2012). Early magnitude and potential damage zone estimates for the great M w 9 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L22306.

  • Colombelli, S., Zollo, A., Festa, G. and Picozzi, M. (2014). Evidence for a difference in rupture initiation between small and large earthquakes. Nat. Commun. 5:3958.

  • Delouis, B., Vallée, M., Meghraoui, M., Calais, E., Maouche, S., Lammali, K., Mahsas, A., Briole, P., Benhamouda, F. and Yelles, K. (2004). Slip distribution of the 2003 Boumerdes-Zemmouri earthquake, Algeria, from teleseismic, GPS, and coastal uplift data. Geophys. Res. Lett, 31:L18607.

  • Domingues, A., Custódio, S. and Cesca, S. (2013). Waveform inversion of small-to moderate earthquakes located offshore southwest Iberia. Geophys. J. Int. 192, 248–259.

  • Espinosa-Aranda, J.M., Cuellar, A., García, A., Ibarrola, G., Islas, R., Maldonado, S. and Rodríguez, F.H. (2009). Evolution of the Mexican Seismic Alert System (SASMEX). Seism. Res. Lett. 80, 694–706.

  • Fernández-Ibáñez, F., Soto, J. I., Zoback, M. D. and Morales, J. (2007). Present-day stress field in the Gibraltar Arc (western Mediterranean). J. Geophys. Res., 112.

  • Grandin, R., Borges, J.F., Bezzeghoud, M., Caldeira, B. and Carrilho, F. (2007). Simulations of strong ground motion in SW Iberia for the 1969 February 28 (Ms = 8.0) and the 1755 November 1 (M 8.5) earthquakes—I. Velocity model. Geophys. J. Int. 171, 1144–1161.

  • Hanks, T. C. and Kanamori, H. (1979). A moment magnitude scale. Geophys. Res. 84, 23480–23500.

  • Hoshiba, M., Kamigaichi, O., Saito, M., Tsukada, S. and Hamada, N. (2008). Earthquake early warning starts nationwide in Japan EOS Trans. AGU, 89, 73–74.

  • Kanamori, H. (2005). Real-time seismology and earthquake damage mitigation. Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 33, 195–214.

  • López, C. (2008). Nuevas fórmulas de magnitud para la Península Ibérica y su entorno. Master thesis on Geophysics and Meteorology.Earth Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics I Department. Complutense University of Madrid. Madrid.

  • Mancilla, F., Ammon, C. J., Herrmann, R. B. and Morales, J. (2002). Faulting parameters of the 1999 Mula earthquake, southeastern Spain. Tectonophysics, 354.

  • Pro, C., Buforn, E., Bezzeghoud, M. and Udías, A.(2013). The earthquakes of 29 July 2003, 12 February 2007, and 17 December 2009 in the region of Cape Saint Vincent (SW Iberia) and their relation with the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Tectonophysics, 583, 16–27.

  • Rueda, J. and Mézcua, J. (2005). Near-real-time seismic moment-tensor determination in Spain. Seismol. Res. Lett. 76, 455–465.

  • Stich, D., Martín, R. and Morales. J. (2010). Moment tensor inversion for Iberia-Maghreb earthquakes 2005–2008. Tectonophysics, 483, 390–398.

  • Veith, K.F. and Clawson G.E. (1972). Magnitude from short period P-wave data. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 62, No. 2, 435–452.

  • Wu, Y-M and Kanamori, H. (2005). Rapid assessment of damage potential of earthquakes in Taiwan from the beginning of P-waves. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 95, No. 3, 1181–1185.

  • Wu, Y-M. and Zhao, L. (2006). Magnitude estimation using the first three seconds P-wave amplitude in earthquake early warning. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L16312.

  • Wu, Y.-M., Kanamori, H., Allen, R. M. and Hauksson, E. (2007). Determination of earthquake early warning parameters, τ c and P d , for southern California. Geophys. J. Int. 170, 711–717.

  • Yelles, K., Lammali, K., Mahsas, A., Calais, E., Briole, P. (2004). Coseismic deformation of the May 21st, 2003, Mw = 6.8 Boumerdes earthquake, Algeria, from GPS measurements. Geophys. Res. Lett., v. 31, L13610.

  • Zollo, A., Lancieri, M. and Nielsen, S. (2006). Earthquake magnitude estimation from peak amplitudes of very early seismic signals on strong motion records. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, 23.

  • Zollo, A., Amoroso, O., Lancieri, M., Wu, Y-M. and Kanamori, H. (2010). A Threshold-based Earthquake Early Warning using dense accelerometer networks. Geophys. J. Int., 183, 963–974.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank to Robert Chatwin for revising and correcting the English text on the manuscript. This work was financially supported by Spain’s Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia CGL2010-19803-C03-01 project, by the ALERTES-RIM CGL2013-45724-C3-1-R project, by the INNOCAMPUS project (supported by the Spain’s Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Orden CIN/1934/2010) and by the NERA project which financed a three-month stay at the RISSC Laboratory (University of Naples, Italy). The contribution of AZ has been partly funded by REAKT Project (Strategies and tools for Real-Time EArthquake RisK ReducTion) founded by the European Community via the Seventh Framework Program for Research (FP7), Contract No. 282862.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geofísica y Meteorología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain

    M. Carranza & E. Buforn

  2. Department of Physics, Università Federico II, Naples, Italy

    A. Zollo

Authors
  1. M. Carranza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. E. Buforn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Zollo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Carranza.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Carranza, M., Buforn, E. & Zollo, A. Testing the Earthquake Early-Warning Parameter Correlations in the Southern Iberian Peninsula. Pure Appl. Geophys. 172, 2435–2448 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-015-1061-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-015-1061-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation