Unsupervised Pattern Recognition for Geographical Clustering of Seismic Events Post MW 7.8 Ecuador Earthquake

Abstract

Ecuador is located at the collision point of Nazca and South America tectonic plates, an area with high seismic activity; hence it is common that a large number of seismic events occur annually. On April 16, 2016, a Mw 7.8 earthquake impacted coastal Ecuador, and plenty of aftershocks were located within the affected and surrounding areas. Determining similar seismic geographical zones of the such events has become a problem of great interest for post-earthquake mitigation actions. In this paper, we present an approach to cluster seismic events post Mw 7.8 Ecuador earthquake. We carried out unsupervised pattern recognition through a clustering algorithm called MST-kNN. Our approach identified five clusters with similar seismic geographical zones along coastal provinces and Pacific Ocean. The results can be used to plan post-earthquake mitigation strategies such as identifying safe roads for evacuation plans or adequate location of ad hoc health and supply centers.