Statistical seismology

Statistical seismology is a subfield of seismology that applies rigorous statistical methods and stochastic modeling to earthquake science. The methodological approach in statistical seismology is a top-down approach that typically ignores the specific physical mechanisms of a single earthquake occurrence and focuses on trends in bulk earthquake occurrence.

Foundational ideas were shaped by early empirical discoveries like the Gutenberg-Richter magnitude-frequency law and Omori's law of aftershock decay. The statistical approach to earthquake occurrence has crystallized into a sub-field of its own by the works Ogata, Vere-Jones, Kagan and others.

Statistical seismology explains earthquake occurrence by analyzing the multidimensional distribution of events in time, space, size, and focal mechanism orientation. The purpose of this subfield is to reveal and analyze statistical trends in earthquake occurrence to improve understanding of earthquake generation mechanisms and improve earthquake prediction and forecasting tasks.