Novel methods for creating an earthquake complex network using a declustered catalog

Abstract In recent years, complex networks have been used as new tools to study patterns in earthquake data. Although various methods have been developed to construct earthquake networks, there is still a long way to use this approach as a complete framework for analyzing seismicity. This research develops novel methods for building earthquake networks and investigates the patterns that they could reveal. The proposed methods use a specific declustered catalog and define nodes based on main shocks and edges on aftershocks’ period or sequence. Another method is offered to convert the resulted networks, as earthquake networks, to epicenters networks. The catalog of Iran’s earthquakes from 2006 to 2018 is used to produce earthquake networks using the above-mentioned methods. The resulted networks are scale-free and hierarchical with community structure, as expected. Some nodes’ features in the networks are shown correlated with the magnitude of the related event. Most patterns and features are preserved while converting the earthquakes network to epicenters network. Proposed methods better capture a region’s seismic features into a complex network with a more precise relationship between seismological laws and network characteristics and can help develop perfect seismicity analyzing framework based on complex networks.