P A T T E R N R E C O G N I T I O N O F S E I S M I C D A T A U S I N G A C L U S T E R I N G M E T H O D F O R E A R T H Q U A K E P R E D I C T I O N

Abstract:
Iran is known as one of the high risk seismic regions of the world. Over the past 50 years, many destructive earthquakes have occurred in this area, causing much human loss and financial damage. So, from the perspective of emergency-management and hazard preparedness, it is essential to make an effort to predict earthquake occurrence. Earthquake prediction is an instance of interdisciplinary research, which is a concern of many scientists in various fields, such as geology, seismology, engineering, mathematics, computer science and even social sciences, who study different aspects of the matter to find new solutions. Efforts in this field are divided into long-term and short-term predictions. The short-term predictions are based on precursors such as foreshock, seismic quiescence, decrease in radon concentrations and other geochemical phenomenon. Due to numerous complexities and unknown factors inside the earth, exact prediction of earthquakes is difficult and practically impossible. During the last two decades, many techniques have been developed to discover the pattern of seismic data and predict three earthquake parameters, namely; time of occurrence, location and magnitude of future earthquakes. Soft computing and data mining techniques, such as neural networks, fuzzy logic and clustering methods are appropriate tools for problems, such as earthquake prediction, that suffer from inherent complexities. Many researchers have used these approaches to reduce uncertainty in results. In this paper, the b-value of the Gutenberg Richter law has been considered as a precursor to earthquake prediction. Prior to earthquakes equal to or greater than $M_w$ = 6.0, temporal variation of the b-value has been examined in Qeshm island and neighboring areas in the south of Iran, from 1995 to 2012. The clustering method, by the k-means algorithm, and a self-organizing map (SOM) have been undertaken to find a pattern of variation of the b-value. Three clusters are obtained as an optimum number of clusters by the Silhouette Index and the Davis-Bouldin index. Prior to all the mentioned earthquakes $(M_wgeq 6.0)$ a cluster, known as a decrease in b-value, has been seen; so, a decrease in the b-value before main shocks has been considered as a distinctive pattern. Also, an approximate time of decrease has been determined.
Language:
Persian
Published:
Sharif Journal Civil Engineering, Volume:32 Issue: 2, 2016
Pages:
29 to 37
https://www.magiran.com/p1603521