Main shocks and evolution of complex earthquake networks

Abstract

Dynamical evolution of earthquake network is studied. Through the analysis of the real data taken from California and Japan, it is found that the values of the clustering coefficient exhibit a specific behavior around the moment of a main shock: the coefficient remains stationary before a main shock, suddenly jumps up at the main shock, and then slowly decreases to become stationary again. Thus, the network approach to seismicity dynamically characterizes main shocks in a peculiar manner.