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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics pp 1–4Cite as

Earthquake, Aftershocks

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Aftershocks Earthquakes that follow a large earthquake (the mainshock) in an earthquake sequence.

Introduction

Earthquakes typically occur in sequences that may include foreshocks, the mainshock (the largest event or events), and aftershocks. Earthquake sequences without a clear mainshock are called swarms.

Aftershocks generally refer to the smaller earthquakes that follow a mainshock within certain spatial and temporal windows. However, the criteria for choosing these windows are somewhat arbitrary. Typically, aftershocks are defined within an area around the mainshock’s source region (i.e., the ruptured fault segment, which is about 50–100 km long for a magnitude 7.0 earthquake). Most aftershocks occur on the main rupture surface; hence, they are often used to define the complex geometry of the rupture plane. However, in many cases, especially for earthquakes in subduction zones, the aftershock area increases significantly following the mainshock (Tajima and Kanamori 1985)...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Mian Liu

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Seth Stein

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  1. Mian Liu
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  2. Seth Stein
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Correspondence to Mian Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Seismology, National Geophysical Research Insti, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Liu, M., Stein, S. (2019). Earthquake, Aftershocks. In: Gupta, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_204-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10475-7_204-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10475-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10475-7

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