Return periods of earthquakes and trends of seismic activity

Abstract

The earthquake activity in Europe is investigated in the paper using return periods of earthquakes in fifteen European seismic regions. The variations of return periods are compared with the fundamental structure of Europe and with the observed migrations of epicentres. The probabilities of occurrence of earthquakes and their return periods are obtained by applying the theory of largest values to the data in Karnik'sCatalogue of European Earthquakes 1901–1967.