Rate‐Dependent Incompleteness of Earthquake Catalogs

摘要: Important information about the earthquake generation process can be gained from instrumental catalogs, but this requires complete recordings to avoid biased results. The local completeness magnitude Mc is known depend on general conditions such as seismographic network and environmental noise, which generally limit possibility of detecting small events. detectability additionally reduced by an earthquake‐induced increase noise level leading short‐term variations Mc, cannot resolved traditional methods relying analysis frequency–magnitude distribution. Based simple assumptions, I propose a new method estimate temporal excursions solely based estimation rate resulting in high resolution Mc. approach shown agreement with apparent decrease estimated Gutenberg–Richter b‐value high‐activity phases recorded data sets observed incompleteness periods after mainshocks. Furthermore, algorithm changes introduced applied empirical aftershock swarm sequences California central Europe, indicating that fluctuations are often related rate‐dependent catalogs.