THE CRITICAL EARTHQUAKE MODEL: OBSERVATIONS IN CRITICAL AREAS OF THE BROADER AEGEAN AREA

The time variation of the cumulative Benioff strain, S, in several critical regions of past mainshocks which occurred in Greece and surrounding area has been examined, in an attempt to check the validity of the critical point concept. For this reason, data concerning the critical regions of twelve strong mainshocks, which have recently been defined by other scientists, have been used and intermediate-sized earthquakes which occurred before and after each mainshock were collected. It was found that the cumulative seismic crustal deformation released by these intermediate magnitude events was accelerating before all the mainshocks considered, whereas the deformation release rate during the respective postshock periods was, in general, lower than the preshock ones