Study of Temporal Analysis on Earthquake Data and Statistical Seismology of Nepal

Abstract

An earthquake is the greatest terrifying natural disaster that can do significant damages. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Barpak, which is located about 81 kilometers northwest of Kathmandu killing thousands and affecting millions of citizens on 25^th April 2015. This is the most powerful disaster to strike Nepal since an earthquake in 1934. The aim of this paper is to study temporal analysis on earthquake data of Nepal and to provide some new analytical insights on the importance of statistical seismology. The data of aftershock occurrence followed by the most catastrophic natural disaster were studied using earthquake catalogue produced by the National seismological center Nepal and the United States geological survey. The catalog covers the time span from 1994 to 2015 and includes about 821 earthquakes having magnitude (M_L) four or greater. Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the earthquake data for 22 years using Excel. The frequency-magnitude distribution of earthquakes has been analyzed in view of its application in seismic pattern study. The relationship between a number of events, time, magnitude, depth, latitude and longitude were studied and interpreted. People want to know the prediction of an earthquake but neither physical nor statistical models are sufficient for predictions and other analyses of a seismic pattern. The development of effective procedures and models for this issue may well require a fusion of statistical and physical ideas in ways, which differ radically from standard practice in either field.