%0 Journal Article
%@ 0036-8075
%A Marsan, David
%A Lengline, Olivier
%A Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique, CNRS, Université de Savoie, 73376 Le Bourget du Lac, France.,
%D 2008
%F epos:1342
%I American Association for the Advancement of Science
%J Science
%N 5866
%P 1076-1079
%T Extending Earthquakes' Reach Through Cascading
%U https://episodesplatform.eu/eprints/1342/
%V 319
%X Earthquakes, whatever their size, can trigger other earthquakes. Mainshocks cause aftershocks to occur, which in turn activate their own local aftershock sequences, resulting in a cascade of triggering that extends the reach of the initial mainshock. A long-lasting difficulty is to determine which earthquakes are connected, either directly or indirectly. Here we show that this causal structure can be found probabilistically, with no a priori model nor parameterization. Large regional earthquakes are found to have a short direct influence in comparison to the overall aftershock sequence duration. Relative to these large mainshocks, small earthquakes collectively have a greater effect on triggering. Hence, cascade triggering is a key component in earthquake interactions.