The Signal to Noise Ratio and the Completeness Magnitude: The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown

We analyse the earthquakes catalogues for Italy, South California, and Greece across the COVID-19 lockdown period for each country. The results for Italy and Greece show that, even if the reduction of the signal to noise ratio has improved the earthquake detection capability, the completeness magnit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cataldo Godano, Vincenzo Convertito, Nicola Alessandro Pino
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
Series:Atmosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/5/525
Description
Summary:We analyse the earthquakes catalogues for Italy, South California, and Greece across the COVID-19 lockdown period for each country. The results for Italy and Greece show that, even if the reduction of the signal to noise ratio has improved the earthquake detection capability, the completeness magnitude remains substantially unchanged, making the improved detection capability ineffective from the statistical point of view. A slight reduction (0.2) of the completeness magnitude is observed for South California, likely related to the relatively higher number of seismic stations located close to urban areas. Our findings suggest that—given the present configuration of the seismic network considered here—only an important decrease in the station spacing can produce a significant decrease of the completeness magnitude.
ISSN:2073-4433