%A David Marsan
%A Olivier Lengline
%J Science
%T Extending Earthquakes' Reach Through Cascading
%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.
%N 5866
%P 1076-1079
%V 319
%D 2008
%I American Association for the Advancement of Science
%R doi:10.1126/science.1148783
%L epos1342