Estimating the validity of the recognition results of earthquake-prone areas using the ArcMap

In 1972, V. Keilis-Borok and I. Gelfand introduced the phenomenological approach based on the morphostructural zoning and pattern recognition for identification of earthquake-prone areas. This methodology identifies seismogenic nodes capable of generating strong earthquakes on the basis of geological, morphological, and geophysical data, which do not contain information on past seismicity. In the period 1972–2018, totally, 26 worldwide seismic regions have been studied and maps showing the recognized earthquake-prone areas in each region have been published. After that, 11 of these regions were hit by earthquakes of the relevant sizes. The goal of this work is to analyze the correlation of the post-publication events with seismogenic nodes defined in these 11 regions. The test was performed using the NEIC earthquake catalog because it uniformly defines the location and magnitudes of earthquakes over the globe. The ArcMap facilities were exploited to plot the post-publication events on the maps showing the recognized seismogenic nodes. We found that about 86% of such events fall in the recognized seismogenic nodes. The performed test proved the sufficient validity of the methodology for identifying areas capable of strong earthquakes and confirms the idea on nucleating strong earthquakes at the nodes.