Modeling spatial distribution of earthquake epicenters using inhomogeneous Log-Gaussian Cox point process

This paper explores the applicability of Inhomogeneous Log-Gaussian Cox point process to a complex spatial mechanism generating the tightly clustered locations of an earthquake aftershocks. The data constitutes the deadly 2023-Türkiye earthquake of magnitude 7.8 and its aftershocks of magnitudes as large as 7.5. Locations of active tectonic faults and the plate boundaries marked within the study area provide useful covariate information for explaining the aftershocks distribution pattern in 2-D spatial domain. The fitted Inhomogeneous Log-Gaussian Cox Point Process (LGCP) model is able to successfully account for this information. Intensity function of the model serves as a suitable choice to describe the intricate spatial mechanism underlying the earthquakes pattern generation. The available covariates information improves the performance of the fitted LGCP model in describing spatial variation of the density of earthquakes in terms of the distinct spatial features of the seismic region.