Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The 2011 West Bohemia (Central Europe) earthquake swarm compared with the previous swarms of 2000 and 2008

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Seismology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper presents the basic characteristics of the 2011 West Bohemia/Vogtland earthquake swarm and compares it with the swarms in 2000 and 2008. All these swarms occurred in the Nový Kostel focal zone. Up to 25,000 M L ≤3.7 events with depths between 6 and 10 km were detected in the 2011 swarm. Utilizing WEBNET data, we analysed the cumulative seismic moment, magnitude-frequency and interevent time distributions, space-time distribution of foci and typical focal mechanisms. For this purpose, we improved the formula for estimating the local magnitude M L used by WEBNET. The 2011 swarm exhibited much higher rapidity than the swarms of 2000 and 2008. The magnitude-frequency distributions of all the three swarms are similar, having the b-value close to 1.0. However, the events of higher magnitudes, roughly M L ∼3.0+, depart markedly from the general trend of the weaker events. The probability density functions of the interevent times of all the swarms comply with power law ∝T −1.4, which points to Omori law-like mainshock-aftershock activity. All swarms exhibit a pronounced focal migration; however, no regularity was found. The spatial distribution of the 2011 foci indicates two active fault segments which differ from the segment triggered in the swarms of 2000 and 2008. Furthermore, we analysed the spatial distribution of the mini-swarm of 2013 and found that it complements the swarm of 2011. The prevailing focal mechanisms in the 2011 swarm are of both oblique-normal and oblique-thrust types and correspond closely to the geometry of the activated fault segments. Our analyses indicate that the Nový Kostel area is more complex than was believed to be.

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
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Babuška V, Plomerová J, Fischer T (2007) Intraplate seismicity in the western Bohemian Massif (central Europe): a possible correlation with a paleoplate junction. J Geodyn 44(3–5):149–159. doi:10.1016/j.jog.2007.02.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bankwitz P, Schneider G, Kämpf H, Bankwitz E (2003) Structural characteristics of epicentral areas in Central Europe: Study case Cheb Basin (Czech Republic). J Geodyn 35(1–2):5–32. doi:10.1016/S0264-3707(02)00051-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchaala F, Vavryčuk V, Fischer T (2013) Accuracy of the master-event and double-difference locations: Synthetic tests and application to seismicity in West Bohemia, Czech Republic. J Seismol 17(3):841–859. doi:10.1007/s10950-013-9357-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doubravová J, Horálek J (2013) New interactive software for seismic data processing. Technical Computing Prague 2013 21st Annual Conference Proceedings

  • Fischer T (2003) Automatic location of swarm earthquakes from local network data. Stud Geophys Geod 47(1):83–98. doi:10.1023/A:1022251605990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer T, Horálek J (2000) Refined locations of the swarm earthquakes in the Nový Kostel focal zone and spatial distribution of the January 1997 swarm in Western Bohemia, Czech Republic. Stud Geophys Geod 44(2):210–226. doi:10.1023/A:1022162826079

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer T, Horálek J (2003) Space-time distribution of earthquake swarms in the principal focal zone of the NW Bohemia/Vogtland seismoactive region: Period 1985–2001. J Geodyn 35(1–2):125–144. doi:10.1016/S0264-3707(02)00058-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer T, Horálek J (2005) Slip-generated patterns of swarm microearthquakes from West Bohemia/Vogtland (central Europe): Evidence of their triggering mechanism? J Geophys Res 110(B05S21). doi:10.1029/2004JB003363

  • Fischer T, Horálek J, Michálek J, Boušková A (2010) The 2008 West Bohemia earthquake swarm in the light of the WEBNET network. J Seismol 14(4):665–682. doi:10.1007/s10950-010-9189-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer T, Horálek J, Hrubcová P, Vavryčuk V, Bräuer K, Kämpf H (2014) Intra-continental earthquake swarms in West-Bohemia and Vogtland: a review. Tectonophysics 611:1–27. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2013.11.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hainzl S (2004) Seismicity patterns of earthquake swarms due to fluid intrusion and stress triggering. Geophys J Int 159(3):1090–1096. doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02463.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hainzl S, Fischer T (2002) Indications for a successively triggered rupture growth underlying the 2000 earthquake swarm in Vogtland/NW Bohemia. J Geophys Res 107(B12,2338):1–9. doi:10.1029/2002JB001865

    Google Scholar 

  • Hainzl S, Ogata Y (2005) Detecting fluid signals in seismicity data through statistical earthquake modeling. J Geophys Res 110(No.B5, B05S07). doi:10.1029/2004JB003247

  • Horálek J, Fischer T (2010) Intraplate earthquake swarms in West Bohemia/Vogtland (Central Europe). Jökull 60:67–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Šílený J (2013) Source mechanisms of the 2000 earthquake swarm in the West Bohemia/Vogtland region (Central Europe). Geophys J Int 194(2):979–999. doi:10.1093/gji/ggt138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Fischer T, Boušková A, Jedlička P (2000) The Western Bohemia/Vogtland region in the light of the WEBNET network. Stud Geophys Geod 44(2):107–125. doi:10.1023/A:1022198406514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Šílený J, Fischer T (2002) Moment tensors of the January 1997 earthquake swarm in NW Bohemia (Czech Republic): Double-couple vs. non-double-couple events. Tectonophysics 356:65–85. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(02)00377-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horálek J, Fischer T, Boušková A, Michálek J, Hrubcová P (2009) The West Bohemian 2008-earthquake swarm: when, where, what size and data. Stud Geophys Geod 53(3):351–358. doi:10.1007/s11200-009-0024-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lomax A, Virieux J, Volant P, Berge C (2000) Probabilistic earthquake location in 3D and layered models: Introduction of a Metropolis-Gibbs method and comparison with linear locations. In: Thurber CH, Rabinowitz N (eds) Advances in seismic event location. Kluwer, Amsterdam, pp 101–134

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lomax A, Michelini A, Curtis A (2009) Earthquake location, direct, global-search methods. In: Meyers RA (ed) Encycl complex Syst Sci, Part 5. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3. Springer, New York, pp 2449–2473

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Málek J, Horálek J, Janský J (2005) One-dimensional qP-wave velocity model of the upper crust for the West Bohemia/Vogtland earthquake swarm region. Stud Geophys Geod 49(4):501–524. doi:10.1007/s11200-005-0024-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mrlina J, Kämpf H, Kroner C, Mingram J, Stebich M, Brauer A, Geissler W H, Kallmeyer J, Matthes H, Seidl M (2009) Discovery of the first quaternary maar in the Bohemian Massif, Central Europe, based on combined geophysical and geological surveys. J Volcanol Geotherm Res 182(1–2):97–112. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2009.01.027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neunhöfer H, Hemmann A (2005) Earthquake swarms in the Vogtland/Western Bohemia region: Spatial distribution and magnitude-frequency distribution as an indication of the genesis of swarms? J Geodyn 39(4):361–385. doi:10.1016/j.jog.2005.01.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parotidis M, Rothert E, Shapiro S A (2003) Pore-pressure diffusion: a possible triggering mechanism for the earthquake swarms 2000 in Vogtland/NW-Bohemia, central Europe. Geophys Res Lett 30(20):2075. doi:10.1029/2003GL018110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Utsu T (1971) Aftershocks and earthquake statistics (III) - Analyses of the distribution of earthquakes in magnitude,time and space with special consideration to clustering characteristics of earthquake occurrence (1). Journal of the Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University Series 7, Geophysics 3(5):379–441. http://hdl.handle.net/2115/8688

    Google Scholar 

  • Utsu T, Ogata Y, Matsu’ura R S (1995) The centenary of the Omori formula for a decay law of aftershock activity. J Phys Earth 43:1–33. doi:10.4294/jpe1952.43.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vavryčuk V (2001) Inversion for parameters of tensile earthquakes. J Geophys Res 106(B8):16,339–16,355. doi:10.1029/2001JB000372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vavryčuk V (2002) Non-double-couple earthquakes of 1997 January in West Bohemia, Czech Republic: Evidence of tensile faulting. Geophys J Int 149(2):364–373. doi:10.1046/j.1365-246X.2002.01654.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vavryčuk V (2011) Principal earthquakes: Theory and observations from the 2008 West Bohemia swarm. Earth Planet Sci Lett 305(3–4):290–296. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.03.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vavryčuk V, Bouchaala F, Fischer T (2013) High-resolution fault image from accurate locations and focal mechanisms of the 2008 swarm earthquakes in West Bohemia, Czech Republic. Tectonophysics 590:189–195. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2013.01.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Švancara J, Havíř J, Conrad W (2008) Derived gravity field of the seismogenic upper crust of SE Germany and West Bohemia and its comparison with seismicity. Stud Geophys Geod 52(4):567–588. doi:10.1007/s11200-008-0038-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waldhauser F (2001) hypoDD: A computer program to compute double-difference hypocenter locations. US Geol Surv Open File Rep 01–113:1–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldhauser F, Ellsworth W (2000) A double-difference earthquake location algorithm: Method and application to the northern Hayward fault, California. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90(6):1353–1368. doi:10.1785/0120000006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiemer S, Wyss M (2000) Minimum magnitude of completeness in earthquake catalogs: Examples from Alaska, the western United States, and Japan. Bull Seismol Soc Am 90(4):859–869. doi:10.1785/0119990114

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Our special thanks belong to our colleagues Jana Doubravová and Jakub Klicpera for carefully handling the WEBNET data. We also wish to thank Alena Boušková and Martin Labuta for primary processing of the WEBNET seismograms. Tomáš Fischer is in our debt for his help with calibrations of the WEBNET magnitudes. Editor Thomas Braun devoted careful attention to this paper for which we are grateful. The two anonymous reviewers provided valuable suggestions that helped us substantially to improve the paper. The work was accomplished within the Grant Project P210–12–2336 of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, “Earthquake swarms and their triggering mechanisms in diverse tectonic environments (Bohemian Massif, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Western Alps).” The monitoring system WEBNET providing earthquake data received considerable support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic (Project LM201000).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

    Hana Čermáková & Josef Horálek

  2. Institute of Geophysics CAS, v. v. i., Boční II/1401, 14131, Prague, Czech Republic

    Hana Čermáková

Authors
  1. Hana Čermáková
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Josef Horálek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hana Čermáková.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Čermáková, H., Horálek, J. The 2011 West Bohemia (Central Europe) earthquake swarm compared with the previous swarms of 2000 and 2008. J Seismol 19, 899–913 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-015-9502-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-015-9502-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation