Exploratory analysis of marked poisson processes applied
to Balkan earthquake sequences

Dragomir Gospodinov1 and Renata Rotondi2

1 Geophysical Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Akad. G. Bontchev bl.3, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

2 C.N.R. Istituto per le Applicazioni della Matematica e dell’Informatica, Via Ampere, 56 - 20131, Milano, Italy

(Received 17 July 2000; accepted 29 March 2001)

Abstract: We present some applications of marked Poisson processes to analyse catalog data of earthquakes. A compound Poisson process has been used to model cumulative energy release of main shocks in the Balkan region. Also, a marked Poisson process has been applied to model number of events at different magnitude levels. Another model has been developed to feature the joint distribution of interoccurrence times and corresponding magnitude differences between subsequent events. Results point out that marking of the process is a helpful instrument, enabling us to catch some features of the physical process underlying the data.

Keywords: Marked Poisson Processes, Earthquakes Sequences, Models of Earthquake Catalog Data.