Seismicity variations prior to the 2016 ML 6.6 Meinong, Taiwan earthquake

  • Abnormal seismicity change before 2016 Meinong event is revealed by RTL method
  • Long obvious seismic quiescence stage was found prior to the 2016 Meinong event
  • Seismicity change is useful hint for potential seismic-hazard assessment
Abstract

The 2016 ML 6.6 Meinong earthquake struck southern Taiwan and caused serious damage due to the strong ground shaking. Anomalous seismicity spatiotemporal signature changes were identified prior to the 2016 Meinong event. We investigate the seismicity rate changes associated with the 2016 Meinong mainshock by applying the region-time-length (RTL) algorithm. The temporal result reveals a long obvious seismic quiescence stage soon after the 2012 Wutai event lasting until the 2016 Meinong mainshock. The spatial pattern of different background period lengths all exhibit that the 2016 Meinong event occurred near the abnormal seismic quiescence patch. Our study shows that the spatiotemporal information of the seismicity change could be a useful indication for potential seismic-hazard assessment.

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